In this report, here are recaps of major court rulings that
dominated public discussions in 2025.
Below are the major court judgements that shaped the year, culled from TheCable.
PROSCRIPTION OF LAKURAWA AS A TERRORIST GROUP
In January, the federal high court in Abuja declared the
Lakurawa sect a terrorist group.
The terrorist group gained notoriety after launching a
series of brutal attacks on communities in the north-west late 2024.
One of its deadly attacks occurred in November 2024, when
gunmen stormed Mera village in Augie LGA of Kebbi state, killing at
least 15 villagers.
The court also proscribed the Lakurawa sect alongside other
similar groups operating across parts of Nigeria, particularly in the
north-west and north-central regions.
SUPREME COURT JUDGMENT ON RIVERS POLITICAL CRISIS
In February, the Supreme Court nullified the LG election
held in Rivers state on October 5, 2024.
The apex court held that there was no evidence to show that
the conditions set out in section 150(3) of the Electoral Act had been met
before the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC) conducted the
polls.
The five-member panel affirmed the judgement of a
federal high court that barred the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Accountant-General
of the Federation from releasing statutory monthly allocations to Rivers state.
The apex court also ordered the Martins Amaewhule-led
faction of the Rivers state assembly and other elected members of the house to
resume sitting.
At the time of the ruling, the supreme court judgement was
widely seen as a victory for the camp of Nyesom Wike, minister of the Federal
Capital Territory (FCT), while it was regarded as a setback to the camp of
Siminalayi Fubara, governor of Rivers.
Both sides were laying claim to the control of Rivers state,
a power struggle that eventually culminated in the declaration of
emergency rule in March by President Bola Tinubu.
SUNDAY JACKSON’S DEATH SENTENCE
In February 2021, an Adamawa high court sentenced Sunday
Jackson, a farmer, to death over the killing of an attacker on his farm,
despite his claim of self-defence.
On January 27, 2015, Jackson was cultivating his farm when a
herder, armed with a knife, attempted to attack him. The herder was reportedly
searching for those who killed his cattle.
Jackson was said to have overpowered the attacker, disarmed
him, and stabbed his throat thrice, according to court documents.
In its ruling, the court held that Jackson had the
opportunity to escape rather than stab his attacker.
In June 2022, the court of appeal in Adamawa affirmed the
judgement of the high court, dismissing Jackson’s claim of self-defence.
In March 2025, the Supreme Court also upheld the
judgement of the High Court, a ruling that sparked outrage among Nigerians.
Critics of the judgement argued that the apex court failed
to see reasons in Jackson’s self-defence argument.
However, growing calls for the Adamawa government
to pardon Jackson yielded results on Tuesday, when Ahmadu Fintiri, governor of
the state, listed him among those pardoned in the spirit of Christmas
and New Year celebrations.
APPEAL COURT AFFIRMED CONVICTION OF LECTURER OVER
ELECTORAL FRAUD
In April, the court of appeal in Calabar, Cross River state, affirmed the
conviction of Peter Ogban, a professor of soil science at the University of
Calabar, who was sentenced to prison for manipulating election results.
Ogban was the returning officer in the senatorial election
in Akwa Ibom north-west in 2019 and was accused of announcing false election
results in favour of Godswill Akpabio, the All Progressives Congress (APC)
senatorial candidate at the time.
In March 2021, the High Court in Akwa Ibom State sentenced Ogban
to three years in prison after finding him guilty of altering the election
results to favour the APC over the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The court also fined him N100,000.
GOVERNORS LOST BID TO RECLAIM N1.8TRN RECOVERED
FUNDS
In May, the supreme court dismissed a suit filed
by the 36 state governments and the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) challenging
the federal government’s management of recovered looted funds.
In the lead judgement prepared by Chidiebere Uwa and read by
Mohammed Idris, the seven-member panel of the apex court unanimously held that
it lacked jurisdiction to entertain the case.
The court held that the dispute falls within the
jurisdiction of the Federal High Court, not the Supreme Court.
In the suit filed in 2021, the states alleged that between
2015 and 2021, the federal government recovered looted funds amounting to
N1,836 trillion alongside 167 properties, 450 cars, 300 trucks and cargoes, and
20 million barrels of crude oil valued at over N450 billion.
They contended that the federal government failed to remit
the recoveries into the federation account as required by the constitution.
‘FIRS CAN COLLECT VAT ON BOLT RIDES, FOOD
DELIVERIES’
In July, the federal high court sitting in Lagos affirmed the
power of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) to collect value-added tax
(VAT) on transport and food services provided by independent drivers and
vendors operating via platforms like Bolt.
In a judgement delivered by Akintayo Aluko, the presiding
judge, the court upheld an earlier ruling of the tax appeal tribunal (TAT),
which recognised FIRS’ authority to appoint such digital platforms as VAT
collection agents.
The dispute began in 2022 when the operators filed suit No.
TAT/LZ/VAT/074/2022 at the tax appeal tribunal, seeking to restrain the FIRS
from imposing the VAT on services rendered via the Bolt platform.
COURT DECLARES PAT UTOMI’S SHADOW GOVERNMENT
ILLEGAL
In October, a federal high court in Abuja, the nation’s
capital, issued an order restraining Pat Utomi, professor of
political economy, and his associates from proceeding with their plan to
establish a shadow government in the country.
In a suit filed by the Department of State Services (DSS),
James Omotosho, the presiding judge, held that the concept of a shadow
government or cabinet is unconstitutional and alien to the nation’s
presidential system of government.
Omotosho ruled that Nigeria’s constitution does not
recognise any parallel or alternative government outside the one it provides
for.
NNAMDI KANU’S CONVICTION
In November, Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the proscribed
Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), was convicted of terrorism by the federal
high court in Abuja and sentenced to life imprisonment.
James Omotosho, the presiding judge, sentenced Kanu to life
imprisonment on counts one, four, five, and six of the seven-count charges.
The judge also imposed prison terms of 20 years and five
years on counts three and seven, respectively.
The judgement brought to an end Kanu’s criminal trial, which
started after his extradition from Kenya to Nigeria in 2021 to face terrorism
charges.
SUPREME COURT JUDGMENT ON OSUN LGA FUNDS
In December, the supreme court dismissed the suit
filed by the Osun attorney-general (AG) and commissioner for justice against
the federal government on withheld LG allocations due to the state.
In a split decision of six to one, the apex court held that
the Osun AG does not have the legal standing to institute the suit on behalf of
the state’s 30 LGAs.
The court ruled that only duly elected LGA chairpersons have
the right to sue or be sued directly over the matter.
However, the court held that the federal government acted
wrongly by withholding the LGAs’ allocations, describing the action “as a grave
breach” of the constitution.
SUPREME COURT JUDGMENT ON RIVERS EMERGENCY RULE
On December 15, the federal government delivered
judgement on the declaration of emergency rule in Rivers state and
suspension of democratic institutions by President Bola Tinubu in March.
The judgement came barely three months after the expiration
of the six-month emergency rule.
In its judgement, the supreme court upheld the president’s
constitutional powers to declare a state of emergency in any part of the
country to prevent a breakdown of law and order.
The apex court also affirmed the president’s authority to
suspend elected officials for a specified period during the emergency.
The ruling followed a suit filed by Adamawa state, and 10
other PDP-led states, challenging the legality of the emergency rule.
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