A lawyer, Njoku Jude Njoku, has expressed deep concern over what he described as a crisis of interpretation among some Nigerian judges, warning that it threatens the very foundation of justice in the country.
In a public legal briefing note shared with NewsNGR on Saturday, Njoku, who is a member of the global defence team of the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, argued that laws are increasingly being misinterpreted in ways that undermine fair trials.
“We are confronted with a judiciary” where clear provisions of laws “are twisted into absurdities by those entrusted with their interpretation,” he wrote, citing the ongoing trial of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, as an example of what he described as “judicial lapses” in interpreting statutory provisions.
He pointed to Section 303(3)(c) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) 2015, which requires judges to determine, during a no-case submission, whether the evidence presented is such that no reasonable court could convict on it.
According to him, this necessarily involves scrutinizing the record of cross-examination. He, however, claimed that in Kanu’s case, the trial judge declined to evaluate the cross-examinations conducted by senior defence lawyers including Chief Kanu Agabi (SAN), Dr. Onyechi Ikpeazu (SAN), and Paul Erokoro (SAN).
“How can a judge claim he will not weigh the evidence when the law expressly compels him to do so? This is not an academic debate—it is a judicial duty,” Njoku argued.
The lawyer also raised concern over the courts’ handling of repealed laws. He cited Section 122 of the Evidence Act, which requires courts to take judicial notice of all laws in force in Nigeria, including repeals.
Njoku noted that the Terrorism Prevention (Amendment) Act 2013 had been repealed and replaced by the Terrorism Prevention and Prohibition Act 2022, yet both the Supreme Court (in remitting Kanu’s case) and the trial court allegedly failed to acknowledge the repeal.
He described this as a “fundamental legal error,” recalling the Supreme Court decision in NNPC v. Fawehinmi (1998) 7 NWLR (Pt. 559) 598, which held that failure to take judicial notice of a law or its repeal could invalidate court proceedings.
“This is not a minor oversight. It is a jurisdiction-terminating error. The settled law in Nigeria is that where a court fails to take judicial notice of a repealed statute, the entire trial collapses,” he stated.
Njoku called for reform in the judiciary, emphasizing the need for better comprehension skills among judges.
“What Nigeria requires is not only judicial reform but judicial rehabilitation in comprehension. Otherwise, justice will remain forever lost in translation,” he warned.
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