Minister of State for Labour and Productivity, James Ocholi (SAN), his wife and son have been confirmed dead..
Ocholi, who was national deputy legal adviser of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the members of his family died in a road accident along the Kaduna-Abuja highway on Sunday.
Spokesman of the Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC, Mr. Bisi Kazeem confirmed the incident to GPN.
Ocholi, 55, and his son, Aaron Enojo, 20, died on the spot while the wife of the Kogi state legal luminary, Blessing Fatima, a Registrar at Salem University, Sokoto, died later from injuries sustained in the crash.
The rear tyre of the Lexus SUV they were travelling in was said to have burst, and the vehicle skidded off the road and somersaulted several times into the bush.
The Minister’s driver, the chief detail, the orderly and his Personal Assistant were injured as areult of the accident and are receiving treatment.
A native of Dekina Local Government Area of Kogi State, Ocholi attended Ochaja Secondary School in Kogi State before proceeding to the University of Jos to study Law
He finished from the Nigerian Law School in 1986 and was admitted to the Nigerian Bar the same year.
He became a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, in 2007, and Chairman, Disciplinary Committee of the Abuja chapter of the Nigeria Bar Association.
He was governorship aspirant in Kogi State on the platform of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change, CPC, in 2011.
Last year, he sought the APC gubernatorial ticket at the party’s primary election, losing to the late Abubakar Audu.
He was appointed minister in 2015, with associates initially tipping him for the justice ministry.
President Muhammadu Buhari, in a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, expressed shock and sadness at the death of Barrister Ocholi, his wife and son, stressing that the death of the minister was untimely and regretting that Nigeria had lost a key component of the change agenda.
“Barrister Ocholi was an accomplished and patriotic Nigerian, who was keen to accept the call to service at a time his country needed him,” Buhari said.
Buhari also condoled with the government and people of Kogi State, who he said had lost a distinguished and irreplaceable son.
Buhari also sent the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr. David Babachir, to formally convey the news to members of the deceaseds’ family as well as parishioners in his place of worship.
“The President wants us to extend his condolence to Nigerians, the people of Kogi State and the immediate family of James Ocholi.
“Personally, I have known Ocholi for more than 20 years; we have been friends, both in politics and in Christian service. I am indeed personally saddened by this and cannot begin to express the grief that we all face.
