Following the attainment of age 70, Justice Olabode Rhodes-Vivour has retired from the Supreme Court.
A valedictory court session was held in his honour on Monday.
His retirement brings the number of justices in the apex court to 18 while Justice Mary Ukaego Peter-Odili, wife of former Rivers State governor Peter Odili, becomes the second most senior justice of the Supreme Court.
At the valedictory session, Chief Justice of Nigeria Ibrahim Muhammad said the retired justice is “physically energetic and never gets frightened by any form of challenges.”
He added: “His amiable disposition and reticent outlook have literally made him a gentle tiger in the temple of justice.”
On his part, Rhodes-Vivour said, “I have a testimony, not once was I ever absent from work as a judge due to illness. I did have health challenges, but they were resolved during vacation. All medical procedures were uneventful.
“It is with humility that I have and will continue to give thanks praise and glory to the almighty God. The Lord has been good to me, and I will forever be thankful.”
Rhodes-Vivour graduated from the University of Lagos in 1974 with honours, and thereafter he was admitted into the Nigerian Law School, and was called to the bar in 1975, according to information on the Supreme Court’s website.
On February 18, 1994, he was appointed to the bench as a high court judge. He was elevated to the bench of the Court of Appeal on April 25, 2005.
In 2008 on secondment by the Federal Government, he was posted to Sierra Leone Judiciary as a justice of the Supreme Court of Sierra Leone.
On his return to Nigeria, he was appointed as a justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria on September 16, 2010.
