Nigeria’s Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, on Thursday, unveiled The Sasogbon Dictionary of Nigeria Law at the Muson Centre, Lagos.
Prof. Osinbajo was joined at the event by notable Nigerian lawyers from the bar and the bench, including renowned legal practitioner, Chief Wole Olanipekun, Justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria, Bode Rhodes-Vivour and human rights activist, Mr. Femi Falana.
The 7-Volume dictionary is a posthumous publication of the late Nigerian lawyer and publisher, Deji Sasegbon, who died two years ago. The late Sasegbon was a prolific publisher whose works have become popular reference materials in the Nigerian legal system.
His works include 38 volumes of the Nigeria Supreme Court Cases; six volumes of Company and Allied Maters Law and Practice, 30 volumes of Sasegbon’s Laws of Nigeria and 15 volumes of Sasegbon on Election petitions.
The Sasegbon Dictionary of Nigerian Law, which was launched at the event on Thursday, was in honour of his memory and works. Speaking at the presentation of the book, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo said that the late Sasegbon dedicated his life to providing reliable legal tools for judges and lawyers in Nigeria.
“With so much hard work as Editor-in-Chief of DSC Publishers limited, Deji dedicated his life to the documentation of judicial precedents – an indelible legacy in the Nigerian legal system – that generations unborn, from within and outside Nigeria, would benefit from.
“His contribution to the development of online law reporting has brought about ease, speed and accuracy in an unprecedented manner.”
While commending Sasegbon’s widow, Oge, for bring the book to fruition after the death of her husband, Vice President Osinbajo said that the publication of the Sasegbon Dictionary of Nigerian law was a fitting tribute to the late legal icon.
“Even a cursory read of “Sasegbon’s Judicial Dictionary of Nigerian Law” – with legal definitions of over 150,000 terms as rendered by our superior courts and the articulate take of the author on the terms – will attest to the nature and character of Deji’s work.
“Deji had always epitomized quality and high standard. This dictionary, an indispensable tool for the profession and legal scholarship , not only provides various judicial definitions of terms, it also takes the reader through the distinctions of terms, their effects and application in practice.”
Earlier, Chief Olanipekun, who was the chairman of the event, advised lawyers not to abandon families of dead members of the legal profession.
He reminded them that lawyers do not have pensions and gratuities, which has made it necessary for the bar association to work towards establishing insurance and pension schemes for lawyers.
The reviewer of the book, Prof. Koinsola Ajayi, said that the late Sasegbon traversed the landscape of the Nigerian legal system, documenting judicial precedents, recording and explaining legal terms and providing quality reference materials for lawyers and judges in the country.
“What you have is that you no longer refer to foreign text with what Deji has done for us.
“This is a book of our dreams and thus the realization of the common goal for the common good of all of us.
Earlier in her address of welcome, Sasegbon’s widow, said the late legal luminary was passionate about passing knowledge to others.
Source: VON
