The Secretary General of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, Alhaji Lateef Adegbite, has died yesterday after a protracted sickness, Governor of Ogun State, Ibikunle Amosun, said yesterday. He will be buried Saturday, according to family sources.

A statement signed yesterday by the governor's Senior Special Assistant on Media, Funmi Wakama, said Dr Adegbite, who was also the Seriki Musulumi and Baba Adini of Egbaland, "passed on this (Friday) evening in Lagos, at the age of seventy nine."

"Dr. Adegbite shone like a star in the field of law and was well known across the world as the mouthpiece of Islam in Nigeria. The late Seriki was a man who usually offered wise counsel to governments at Federal and State levels.

"The demise of Dr Adegbite is not just a loss to Ogun State but to Nigeria as a whole," the governor said in the statement.

In July this year, the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, headed by the Sultan of Sokoto Alhaji Sa'ad Abubakar, called for prayers Adegbite.

Adegbite was born on 20 March 1933 in Abeokuta, Ogun State.