Nigeria, March 7 -- Sylvester Ngwuta, a justice of the Supreme Court, is dead.

The judge, 69, died just about three weeks to his 70th birthday on March 30 when he will be due for retirement from the bench.

A statement by the Chief Registrar of the apex court, Hadizatu Mustapha, said Mr Ngwuta died in his sleep at about 2.30am on Sunday.

The statement added that Mr Ngwuta, who hailed from Ebonyi State, had been admitted at the National Hospital in Abuja for about one week before his death.

He was said to have been moved to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the hospital on Friday and was also said to have tested negative for COVID-19 following an investigative test carried out on him at the ICU.

The statement read, "The Supreme Court of...