Ahmad Olarewaju Belgore, a retired Nigerian judge who had previously served at the Gambia Court of Appeal, passed away on Tuesday night after breaking his Ramadan fast, according to family sources. At the age of 70, he retired from the Nigerian Appeal Court on April 18, 2023.
From September 2001 until December 2005, Justice Belgore was seconded to the Judiciary in the Gambia and landed in Banjul. He served as a Justice of Appeal for the Gambia Court of Appeal from February 2003 to December 2005. Additionally, from June to December 2005, he served as a Justice of the Supreme Court of the Gambia after being appointed to that position.
Judge Belgore launched a fierce legal confrontation against Yahya Jammeh’s arm of intimidation shortly after his arrival in the Gambia in December 2021. He strongly criticized the National Intelligence Agency for its refusal to produce Alhagie Mbye, an independent reporter who had been held by the agency for more than a week.
Justice A. O. Belgore of the Banjul High Court harshly chastised NIA employees for disobeying the court’s ruling that detaining the journalist for longer than the 72-hour limit stipulated in the Gambian constitution was unlawful.
In August 2004, Justice Ahmed Belgore presided over the three-man Commission of Inquiry into the unexplained disappearance of three million dollars initially planned for Gamtel’s prematurely canceled fiber optic cable project. He became ill during the commission’s proceedings and returned to Nigeria for treatment. He was replaced by Justice Janneh’s appointment while receiving medical care in Nigeria.
After serving in The Gambia for a while, Justice Belgore returned to his position as a Kwara State High Court judge. He was present before the court from January through April of 2006. On February 20, 2021, after serving the Nigerian judiciary in a variety of roles, he was named a Life Bencher.
Veteran Gambian lawyer Ousainou Darboe once said that after reading cases from a variety of Commonwealth and common law jurisdictions, he was especially impressed by the judicial bravery of the honorable Justice Belgore, CJN. He places him in the same category as many other Nigerian justices, some of whom served to the best of their abilities in the Gambian judiciary. The late Justice Belgore was one of the few judges that the veteran lawyer held in high esteem.
