Nigeria’s oldest ambassador to the United States, Justice Sylvanus Adiewere Nsofor is dead.

Reports said the 85 year-old died Thursday in a Maryland, US hospital.

President Buhari has confirmed his death and also expressed heartfelt commiserations with the family.

In a telephone call to Jane, the widow of the retired justice in New York on Friday, the President described Nsofor as “an outstanding judge of rare courage and truth who is not afraid to give justice to whom justice is due.”

Buhari said the country will miss people with such exemplary pedigree.

The president directed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to work with Justice Nsofor’s family on the burial arrangements.

Nsofor, a retired justice of Nigeria’s Court of Appeal, assumed office as Nigeria’s ambassador to the United States on November 13, 2017.

Nsofor was born on March 17, 1935, in Oguta, Imo State.

He graduated from London’s now-defunct Holborn College of Law in 1962.