The Kanu trial proved that prophecy true.

[Abraham Madu]

The Court That Crossed Its Own Line—Part 5

When Procedure Became Politics in the Trial of Nnamdi Kanu

By Prof. MarkAnthony Ujunwa Nze

There are moments in a nation’s judicial history when a single courtroom crystallizes the tension between law, power, and when the bench becomes not merely a place of adjudication, but a mirror reflecting the state of justice itself. The case of Federal Republic of Nigeria v. Nnamdi Kanu, as presided over by Justice James Kolawole Omotosho, was one such moment. It was less a trial about guilt or innocence and more a referendum on the resilience of Nigeria’s constitutional order under political heat.

At its core, the controversy surrounding Justice Omotosho’s handling of Kanu’s proceedings is not about ideology or sentiment. It is about law, its clarity, its consistency, and its capacity to restrain those who wield it. The Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (1999, as amended) is explicit: no person may be convicted of a criminal offence unless the offence is defined in a written law. This is the fundamental architecture of legality—nullum crimen sine lege. Yet, under the bright lights of the Federal High Court in Abuja, that bedrock principle appeared negotiable.

A Trial Built on Shifting Sand

From the first procedural sitting, the Kanu case was weighed down by contradictions. The prosecution’s charges oscillated between “incitement,” “terrorism-related communication,” and “conduct capable of breaching public peace.” None of these expressions, as the Nigerian Bar Association’s Human Rights Committee later noted, exist in any codified Nigerian criminal statute. Despite that legal vacuum, the court permitted the case to proceed. The acceptance of undefined offences signaled an early departure from constitutional orthodoxy, creating a precedent that offends the rule of law itself.

To the untrained observer, such technicality might appear trivial; to any serious lawyer, it is catastrophic. The charge sheet is the heart of any criminal proceeding. When its language is vague, the entire trial becomes a theatre without script or compass. Justice Omotosho, by allowing proceedings to continue such ambiguous legal ground, placed political expediency above procedural certainty. The courtroom became a hybrid arena—half judicial, half performative—where the appearance of legality replaced its substance.

The National Judicial Council’s Code of Conduct defines impartiality as “freedom from bias or the perception thereof.” But in Omotosho’s courtroom, perception and practice fused uncomfortably. The court’s consistent pattern of denying defense motions—ranging from applications for bail variation to access to classified evidence—created the image of predetermined restraint. Each refusal may have had textual justification, yet the cumulative effect was unmistakable: the defendant was litigating uphill on a slope designed by the state.

The Erosion of Fair Procedure

In a proper adversarial system, procedure is the invisible scaffolding of justice. It ensures that no conviction can rest on secrecy, speculation, or selective disclosure. But when Kanu’s counsel demanded access to the so-called intercepted communications forming the crux of the state’s case, Justice Omotosho declined, citing “national security considerations.” That phrase, perhaps the most overused in Nigerian jurisprudence, has become a judicial blindfold—an easy way to exclude scrutiny under the pretext of patriotism.

Section 36(3) of the Constitution requires that all evidence in criminal trials be presented in open court, accessible to both parties. The refusal to grant disclosure, therefore, was not an act of judicial prudence but of procedural subversion. The International Commission of Jurists (Africa) has long warned that the moment national security becomes a standing exception to transparency, constitutional rights devolve into conditional privileges. The Kanu trial proved that prophecy true.

Read More: https://africadigitalnewsnewyork.com/.../the-court-that.../

#justiceomotoshosfailure #FreeNnamdiKanuNow #injustice #profmarkanthonynze #everyonehighlights

Africa Daily News, New York

Log in or sign up to view See posts, photos and more on Facebook.