Aisosa Iyobosa Idemudia
Lovingly known as “Aunty Sosa”
8 March 1958 — 30 May 2024 · aged 66
Abuja barrister and former NNPC counsel who took on cases nobody else would
Abuja, Nigeria Born in Benin City, Edo State Resting at Family burial ground, Benin CityAbout Aisosa
She was called to the Bar on a Thursday in 1980 and, by her own account, took her first brief the following Monday. It concerned a widow in Mushin whose late husband's brothers had taken her house. Aisosa Idemudia won it within a year and never charged a kobo.
Born in Benin City in 1958, the daughter of a civil servant and a seamstress, Aisosa was educated at Idia College, then read Law at Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile-Ife, where she was one of eleven women in a class of ninety. She was called to the Bar after the Nigerian Law School in Lagos, and her first employer was the Legal Department of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. Over twelve years she drafted contracts, negotiated with oil service companies and quietly became the most feared junior counsel in the building.
When NNPC's headquarters moved to Abuja, she went with it, and in 1994 she opened her own chambers in Garki. Her firm handled commercial work for oil companies and, every Friday afternoon, free cases for women with nowhere else to go. She volunteered at the Legal Aid Council's clinic in Gwagwalada for nineteen years, and mentored more than thirty younger lawyers.
She loved Benin bronze in every size, owa soup with starch, and sitting on her balcony in Maitama on Sunday evenings with a pot of tea and a thick judgment to read. Friends remember an enormous laugh and an equally enormous tolerance for people who were sincerely wrong.
Aunty Sosa died peacefully at home in May 2024, after a long illness she bore with characteristic composure. She leaves her husband, two children, and a legion of grateful clients and colleagues.
“The law is a long, narrow door. Your job is to hold it open for the next person.”
- Faith
- Christian
- Place of birth
- Benin City, Edo State
- Resting place
- Family burial ground, Benin City
- Passed away
- 30 May 2024, Abuja
Requiem Mass
Tuesday, 11 June 2024 at 08:00 UTC
Add to calendarLife journey
Legal Officer to Principal Counsel
Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation1981 – 1993 · Lagos and Abuja
Specialised in upstream contracts and joint ventures.
Principal Partner
Idemudia & Co.1994 – 2022 · Abuja
Opened chambers in Garki with two juniors and one typewriter.
Volunteer Counsel
Legal Aid Council of Nigeria, Gwagwalada Clinic2003 – 2022 · Abuja
Free representation for women and the elderly.
Pro Bono Service Award
Nigerian Bar Association, Abuja Branch2014 · Abuja
For two decades of free legal aid.
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Family & connections
Aisosa is survived by
- Engr. Nosakhare Idemudia· Spouse
- Osasu Idemudia· Daughter
- Eghosa Idemudia· Son
- Isoken Ogbebor· Sister
Tributes & memories
5 people have shared a memory of Aisosa.
Knew Aisosa? Share a memory with the family and everyone who loved them.
Sign in to write a tribute- BO
Fellow member, Abuja Bar and Bench Forum
She chaired our forum dinners with a gentle hand and a sharp memory. She remembered who had lost a parent, who had a new baby, who was struggling in chambers. Abuja's bar has lost its conscience and a good friend.
- DE
Childhood friend, Benin City
Sosa and I walked to Idia College together every morning for five years. She read law reports under the mango tree while the rest of us played ludo. We always knew where she was headed. Benin has lost one of its most principled daughters.
- MO
Former client, Gwagwalada
My husband's family took our land when he died. Madam Idemudia came to the clinic every Friday for eleven months until the court restored it. She never asked for a naira. She sent my children to school with a bag each.
- AD
Colleague at NNPC Legal Department
In 1989 Aisosa caught a clause in a joint-venture agreement that would have cost the corporation millions. She raised it politely, in front of the managing director, and he thanked her. Few people could do that, and fewer would have done it kindly.
- BO
Former junior at Idemudia & Co.
She taught me to read the other side's brief before my own. 'You cannot win a case you have not understood,' she said. Fifteen years later that sentence still decides how I practise. I was the first lawyer she ever hired, and I am so proud of that.
