The President of the Yoruba Council of Elders (YCE), Chief Idowu Sofola, is dead.

Sofola, a prominent jurist, bencher and former President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), died on Friday night in Lagos.

He was 84.

He took over as YCE’s chief from Maj.-Gen. Adeyinka Adebayo who died in 2017.

The Secretary-General of the YCE, Dr. Kunle Olajide, confirmed Sofola’s death on Saturday.

Olajide said the YCE was grieved and shocked by Sofola’s death, who he said, was not ill or bedridden.

“I spoke with him few days ago, congratulating him on the appointment of his son as a high court judge and we were planning an event to host him.

“The icon is leaving us at a critical time particularly in Yorubaland as the country prepares for the 2019 general elections,” the YCE secretary-general added.

“He was an intelligent man of Yoruba extraction and the vacuum he left behind will be difficult to fill.

“It is great shock to me and YCE; a strong advocate and believer in true federalism, brilliant lawyer and defender of human rights and democracy,” he said.