A special lecture will be held on March 6, 2017, to commemorate the first anniversary of the death of the late former minister of state for labour and employment, Barr James Ocholi.

The biography of the late Ocholi, who died in an accident on the Abuja-Kaduna road few months after he was appointed minister, would also be unveiled to the public at the event scheduled to hold in Abuja.

According to a statement by Dr Dan Ogun, chairman of the planning committee and former special adviser to the late Ocholi, the proceeds from the launch of the book shall fund the activities of the Ocholi James, SAN Trust For Good Governance and Value Orientation and subsequent series of annual lectures.

Ogun, who is also the author of the biography, further disclosed that the special guest lecturer, Prof Kabir Mato, shall speak on the theme: “Looking backwards to move Nigeria forward: challenges and choices before the APC administration” at the two-pronged event scheduled to hold at the NAF Conference and Events Centre, Jahi, Abuja.

“The group believes that it is under moral duty to Nigeria and posterity to hold in trust the values, vision and passion for which Ocholi James, SAN lived and died and to sustain such legacies. That is what the two-pronged events symbolise,” he added.

The late former minister, his wife Blessing and son, Joshua, died in an accident on the Kaduna-Abuja highway on March 6, 2016.

Born on 26th November 1960, he was a native of Dekina local government area of Kogi State.

He attended Ochaja Secondary School after which he proceeded to the University of Jos where he studied Law. He graduated from the Nigerian Law School in 1986 and was admitted to the Nigerian Bar the same year.

The late Ocholi became a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) in 2007, and was also chairman, disciplinary committee of the Abuja chapter of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA).

He was governorship aspirant in Kogi State on the platform of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) in 2011.

Between 2013 and 2014, he was deputy national legal adviser of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and in 2015, sought the APC gubernatorial ticket at the party’s primary election but lost to the late Abubakar Audu. He was later appointed minister in the same year.