TO: The General Public, Legal Community, and Media
FROM: Chambers of Christopher Chidera, Esq.
DATE: November 2, 2026
SUBJECT: Dead on Law Alone: How Justice Omotosho Walked Into Nnamdi Kanu’s Pro Se Trap and Committed Judicial Suicide
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: WHEN A JUDGE WALKS INTO A LEGAL TRAP
When Mazi Nnamdi Kanu stood in open court, looked Justice James Omotosho in the eye, and declared that the judge did not know the law, the courtroom erupted in shock over the breach of formal judicial etiquette. While his delivery was unconventional and far from standard courtroom decorum, Kanu was legally correct.
Confined to a Department of State Services (DSS) facility, Kanu spent his time meticulously analyzing the statute books. Recognizing that the trial court was determined to secure a conviction at all costs, he debriefed his legal team, took control of his defense pro se, and systematically laid a fatal legal trap for the bench.
By formally demanding the transition of his trial from the repealed Terrorism Prevention (Amendment) Act 2013 (TPAA) to the extant Terrorism Prevention and Prohibition Act 2022 (TPPA)—as mandated by the compulsory transition commands in Sections 97 and 98(2) of the 2022 Act—Kanu set an unassailable bottleneck. Justice Omotosho, entirely blinded by rage and a personal determination to convict by any means necessary, walked straight into it. The resulting judgment of November 20, 2025, is a masterclass in legal self-destruction, dead on law alone.
1. THE BLINDING RAGE OF THE BENCH: HOW PERSONAL ANIMUS CREATED A FATAL FLAW
When a judge abandons cool-headed detachment and allows personal animus to dictate the outcome of a trial, the result is rarely just a flawed decision—it is a total collapse of judicial craft.
Justice James Omotosho did not merely make a routine error in legal interpretation; he walked straight into Kanu’s calculated trap because he was entirely blinded by a pre-determined agenda. In his rush to punish Nnamdi Kanu, Omotosho threw away judicial caution, ignored basic canons of statutory construction, and left behind a judgment so fundamentally broken that it cannot survive appellate scrutiny.
The Anatomy of Judicial Blindness:
A balanced jurist faced with a high-stakes terrorism trial relies on statutory text, Supreme Court precedent, and procedural caution. When Kanu challenged the court’s command of the law, it struck a raw nerve:
The Refusal to Read: Rather than engaging with the clear text of Sections 97 and 98(2) of the TPPA 2022, the judge dismissed them out of hand. Rage makes a judge lazy; when a court is fixated on securing a conviction, reading mandatory transition provisions feels like an unnecessary hurdle.
Overriding Superior Authority: By failing to transition the charge from the repealed 2013 Act to the extant 2022 Act, Omotosho actively defied the binding principles laid down by the Supreme Court regarding jurisdiction and valid subsisting laws. He acted as though his personal desire to deliver a conviction superseded the hierarchy of Nigerian courts.
2. THE STRATEGY: HOW KANU LAID THE TRAP PRO SE
Kanu realized early that a routine defense would not stop a court determined to reach a predetermined outcome. He took his representation into his own hands, studying the law from his cell to construct a clear legal trap.
He understood that:
Under Section 36(12) of the 1999 Constitution, no citizen can be convicted of an offense unless it is defined and its penalty prescribed in a written, subsisting law.
While Section 98(3) acted merely as a savings clause to keep the case file alive, Sections 97 and 98(2) placed a mandatory duty ("shall") on the court to transition proceedings to the 2022 Act.
The Masterstroke: The November 4 Recitation Trap
The depth of Kanu's legal ambush reached its peak on November 4, 2025. Standing from the dock, Kanu deliberately recited Section 36(12) of the Constitution himself, moving the court to quash the trial for disclosing no offense known to any extant or subsisting law.
In a moment of supreme irony, Justice Omotosho responded by uttering what he thought was a safe judicial platitude—the exact position of the law Kanu knew to be true: "without a written law you cannot be convicted."
Justice Omotosho failed to realize the trap he was stepping into. Kanu knew that a repealed statute does not constitute a "written law in force" under the Constitution. By verbally affirming on the court record the principle while simultaneously proceeding to convict under a dead law, Justice Omotosho committed complete judicial suicide on the face of the record.
3. WHY THE PROSECUTION IS PARALYZED ON APPEAL
The public and the legal community must understand why the state's legal machinery has gone strangely quiet regarding the appeal. The consequence of Justice Omotosho’s emotional overreach and emotional response to the pro se defense is a state of total legal paralysis plaguing the prosecution's appellate team.
Ordinarily, a state machinery defending a high-profile conviction would rush to file briefs of argument and push for an expedited hearing. Instead, they are met with a brick wall of their own making:
No Defense for a Dead Law: How does a state counsel write a legal brief defending a conviction under a statute that has been explicitly repealed and replaced by the National Assembly?
The Impossibility of Rewriting History: The appellate court cannot cure a trial judge's refusal to read or apply mandatory statutory commands. The official trial record stands as the most damning witness against the bench, capturing word-for-word the moment the defendant exposed the statutory requirement and the judge swatted it away.
To be candid, I do not blame the judiciary for their reluctance to list the case for hearing. Justice Omotosho’s judgment is an uncomfortable landmine that Mazi Nnamdi Kanu is seeking to exploit to blow the entire judiciary out of the water. But eventually, the case must be listed or Mazi Nnamdi Kanu released unconditionally, and that reckoning cannot be avoided forever.
CONCLUSION: A CONVICTION DEAD ON LAW ALONE
The public record reveals a stark reality: Justice Omotosho’s judgment is an unconstitutional nullity. By allowing personal animus and a pre-determined desire to convict to blind him to basic statutory commands, the trial judge engineered a self-sabotaged verdict.
The government’s extreme reluctance to list the appeal for hearing or file a substantive response to the Appellant’s Brief speaks volumes. They cannot defend a conviction anchored on a repealed statute. For all observers of justice and the rule of law, the truth is clear: the conviction is dead and buried on law alone.
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