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Breaking: NNAMDI KANU HEADS BACK TO SUPREME COURT TO BATTLE A JUDGMENT THAT DESTROYED JUSTICE (Part 1)
Issued by: Njoku Jude Njoku, Esq.
INTRODUCTION: A JUDGMENT THAT SHOOK THE FOUNDATION OF JUSTICE
On 15 December 2023, a five-member panel of the Supreme Court of Nigeria — led by Justice Garba Lawal and comprising Justices Emmanuel Agim, Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, Tijjani Abubakar, and Ibrahim Musa Saulawa — delivered a judgment that will go down in Nigerian legal history not for its jurisprudential brilliance, but for its calculated assault on constitutional justice.
What unfolded that morning was not a judicial error. It was a conscious judicial manoeuvre designed to ensure that Mazi Nnamdi Kanu remained in perpetual captivity, despite a binding Court of Appeal judgment discharging him of all charges. The Supreme Court knew the law had died, acknowledged that a repealed statute cannot sustain a criminal charge, yet proceeded to resurrect a dead law to send Kanu back to the Federal High Court.
This was not an accident, nor an intellectual slip.
It was a deliberate judicial ambush.
A DEAD LAW WAS RESURRECTED TO PUNISH NNAMDI KANU
At the heart of the current application before the Supreme Court is a disturbing and undeniable fact:
The Supreme Court relied on a repealed law to remit Kanu for trial, even after acknowledging that a dead law cannot sustain a criminal proceeding.
In fact, on 15 December 2023, when the judgment was delivered, the Supreme Court expressly described the Terrorism (Prevention) (Amendment) Act 2013 — under which Kanu was charged — as an “extant and subsisting law”, when clearly it was not. That law had died on 12 May 2022 when it was repealed and replaced by the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act 2022 — over a year before that fateful December morning.
The Supreme Court did not merely overlook the repeal — it affirmatively misrepresented a dead law as alive.
This was not ignorance. It was judicial falsehood with consequential oppression.
WHY THIS WAS NOT A SIMPLE ERROR — BUT A JURISDICTIONAL NULLITY
A repealed law is a legal corpse. It cannot be revived, acted upon, or used to create criminal liability. Once the enabling statute is abolished, the proceedings built upon it collapse.
The Supreme Court knows this principle. It has set aside judgments of lower courts for far less grievous errors. Yet in Kanu’s case, the Court applied two contradictory legal positions in one ruling:
They admitted that a repealed law cannot sustain a criminal charge, and
They still remitted the same repealed-law charge for trial.
This contradiction is not an “error of evaluation” — it is a jurisdictional error that voids the judgment ab initio.
A court loses jurisdiction the moment it relies on a non-existent law. No doctrine of finality can shield a nullity. Where a judgment is rooted in illegality, the Supreme Court has inherent power — and duty — to purge its own record.
THE SUPREME COURT IGNORED A MANDATORY STATUTORY DUTY
The Evidence Act imposes a non-negotiable obligation on all courts — including the Supreme Court:
Section 122 of the Evidence Act 2011 requires judicial notice of all repealed, amended, or newly enacted laws.
The Court did not merely “miss” the repeal — it violated a mandatory statutory duty to acknowledge it. By pretending that the repealed 2013 Act was still in force, the Court acted per incuriam — in ignorance of a binding legal requirement.
A judgment delivered per incuriam is not protected by finality.
The Supreme Court has set aside its own per incuriam decisions before; to refuse to do so here would confirm institutional bias.
Justice James Omotosho of the Federal High Court in Abuja on Thursday declined to accept Prince Emmanuel Kanu’s appearance on behalf of his brother, Nnamdi Kanu, ruling that he is not a legal practitioner.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, on Thursday, swore in General Christopher Gwabin Musa (rtd) as Minister of Defence at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
General Musa’s appointment follows the resignation of Alhaji Mohammed Badaru Abubakar on Monday, December 1, 2025. His nomination was announced the following day and transmitted to the Senate, where it received expedited screening and confirmation.
Born in Sokoto in 1967, General Musa was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant into the Nigerian Army in 1991 and had a distinguished military career. He was appointed Chief of Defence Staff by President Tinubu in 2023 and retired in October 2025.
As Chief of Defence Staff, he championed inter-service security collaboration.
With his swearing-in, the new Defence Minister is expected to immediately assume duties as the Tinubu administration seeks to consolidate recent security gains and fast-track reforms aimed at achieving lasting peace and stability nationwide.
Senate President Godswill Akpabio, Senate Leader Opeyemi Bamidele, Chairman, Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, Sen. Adeniyi Adegbonmire, the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, and the National Security Adviser, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, attended the swearing-in ceremony.
Also in attendance were the spouse of the new Minister, Mrs Lilian Oghogho Musa; Chief of Defense Staff, General Olufemi Oluyede; Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto, Matthew Hassan Kukah; and Justice Kumai Bayang Akaahs (rtd).
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has said it has appealed the judgment of the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, which ordered the release of twenty-seven houses to James Ibechukwu Okoye and his company.
In the Notice of Appeal filed at the Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal, the Commission expressed dissatisfaction with the decision of the trial court, which was delivered on October 31, 2025.
EFCC counsel, Abba Mohammed, SAN, sought two orders from the Court of Appeal, which include; Staying the execution of the judgment of the trial court pending the hearing and determination of the appeal; and such further or other orders as the court may deem fit to make in the circumstances.
Meanwhile, the Commission said it felt obliged to correct the distortions and misrepresentations contained in a news story titled “EFCC Invades Abuja Property Despite Court Order Restraining Agency, Awarding N20 million To Jona Brothers”.
It explained in a statement on X that the Abuja property, Plot 680-689 Cadastral Zone B06, Mabushi, Abuja, referenced in the report, is a subject of criminal charge before Justice A.I Kutigi of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, High Court .
However, the EFCC said it sought and secured an order of interim forfeiture of the property before Justice Emeka Nwite of the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja pending the determination of the criminal charge before Justice Kutigi.
“In granting the order, the court authorized the EFCC to ‘appoint competent persons/ firm to manage the assets/properties listed in the schedule therein, temporarily forfeited to the Federal Government pending the conclusion of investigation and determination of criminal charges against the suspect,’”
“It is also important to point out that the criminal charge struck out by Justice Osho Adebiyi and the N20m cost she awarded is not in any way connected to the interim order.
“In addition, the enforcement of the interim forfeiture order of the property by the Commission is without prejudice to ongoing appeals on court pronouncements about the true ownership of the property. The appeals are ongoing and the EFCC is diligently attending proceedings.”
Judge rejects Nnamdi Kanu’s brother court appearance
IMO ON GLOBAL SPOTLIGHT AS GOVERNOR UZODIMMA KICKS OFF 2025 IMO ECONOMIC SUMMIT.
IMO ON GLOBAL SPOTLIGHT AS GOVERNOR UZODIMMA KICKS OFF 2025 IMO ECONOMIC SUMMIT.
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