Edo State Governor, Camrade Adams Oshiomhole (right) with the Chief Judge of Edo State, Hon. Justice Michael Edokpayi.

Chief Judge of Edo State, Justice Michael Edokpayi, was early yesterday found dead in his room at the Nicon Luxury Hotel, Area 11, Garki, Abuja. He was aged 61. Justice Edokpayi was attending the annual All Judges Conference which started on Monday.
He was said to have left the National Judicial Institute (NJI) immediately after the session that day before the incident happened yesterday.
THIDAY gathered that Edokpayi's police orderly went to his boss’s room but received no response after knocking on the door. He then called the mobile phone but got no response.
Suspecting that something was amiss, he alerted the hotel management. Sources said a spare key was used to open the door after which Edokpayi’s lifeless body was found. The hotel then arranged for an ambulance that took his remains to the morgue of the National Hospital, Abuja.
An autopsy is expected to be carried out before the final burial rites. The news of his death shocked the conference as judges wore mournful faces while some from Edo State were said to have rushed to the hospital to verify the news. According to a source close to the late legal luminary, he had complained of tiredness and slight headache before retiring to his room early in the evening on Monday.
"We were all at the Judges conference yesterday (Monday) and Justice Edokpayi was with us. Although he complained of tiredness and slight headache, nothing suggested to us that he would not live to continue with the conference again “I am not a medical practitioner and therefore would not be able to state categorically the cause of his death. As you can see now, we are all waiting for the outcome of the autopsy by the Police. He left us early in the evening to rest.

He said he needed to rest so as to be able to continue with the conference. So, no one would have thought that would be his end," the source stated. Confirming the story yesterday, the Commissioner of Police, Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mr. John Haruna, who was represented by Mr. Stephen Ekpe, Deputy Commissioner of Police Administration, FCT Police Command, said preliminary investigations into the case had confirmed that the late Judge earlier complained to some people of tiredness and headache. Ekpe did not disclose how many suspects have been arrested so far in connection with the sudden death.

But he said some people were assisting the police in their investigation of the case. Meanwhile, a minute silence was observed for the late CJ during the launching of the Joint Military/Police patrol team at Edo State Government House, Benin, Governor Adams Oshiomhole said the news of the death came as a surprise.

He recalled Edopkayi attended the thanksgiving service to mark the governor's one year in office, held at St Albert Catholic Church, Ugbowo, last Sunday and both of them boarded the same aircraft to Abuja same day.

According to Oshiomhole, “at Abuja, we separated and I went about my official assignment while the CJ went for the Judges Conference”. The late CJ's official quarters located at Vincent Agenmwonmen Avenue, GRA, Benin, has been thronged by friends and relatives commiserating with the family. When THISDAY visited the premises, his brother and Permanent Secretary in the State Ministry of Lands and Survey, Mr. Anthony Edokpayi, was attending to visitors.

The apparently shocked younger Edokpayi described the death of his elder brother as “a big blow to the family and the judiciary”. Justice Edokpayi was appointed the Chief Judge of Edo State by former Governor Lucky Igbinedion in 2006. He worked with Post & Telecommunications before going into the law profession. In March last year, a serving Commissioner for Information and Orientation in the last administration in Edo State, Mr. Calus Enoma, was found dead in his hotel room in Benin days after he was declared missing.

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