FRN v. Kanu Judgment a “Judicial Nullity,” Says Human Rights Lawyer

A legal practitioner and human rights advocate, Onyedikachi Ifedi, Esq., has described the December 2023 Supreme Court judgment in Federal Republic of Nigeria v. Nnamdi Kanu as a “legal nullity born of judicial lawlessness.”

In a public briefing issued on Thursday, Ifedi argued that the five-man panel of the apex court that delivered the ruling violated the doctrine of stare decisis by disregarding the landmark decision in Abacha v. Fawehinmi (2000), which was decided by a larger seven-man constitutional bench.

According to him, the ruling effectively stripped Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, of the protections guaranteed under the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights — protections that had been domesticated into Nigerian law through the African Charter (Ratification and Enforcement) Act.

“The panel ignored binding precedent, denied Kanu the Charter’s explicit prohibition against extraordinary rendition and inhuman treatment, and permitted a prosecution tainted by kidnapping and torture to proceed,” Ifedi said.

He maintained that the judgment amounted not just to a miscarriage of justice but a direct mutiny against Nigeria’s Constitution, the African Charter, and binding judicial precedent.

Quoting relevant authorities, including Osho v. Foreign Finance Corporation (1991) and Oladokun v. Military Governor of Oyo State (1996), Ifedi stressed that a smaller panel of the Supreme Court cannot overrule the decision of a larger panel. He described the ruling as per incuriam — delivered in ignorance of binding law — and therefore void.

“The African Charter, having been domesticated, carries constitutional force. By discarding it, the FRN v. Kanu panel did violence to the Constitution itself,” he declared.

Ifedi warned that allowing the judgment to stand would erode citizens’ human rights protections, undermine the rule of law, and damage the credibility of the Supreme Court.

“The decision is not law but a monument to judicial betrayal — the day the Supreme Court of Nigeria broke its own oath and buried the African Charter alongside the Constitution,” he concluded.

The briefing was signed by Ifedi in his capacity as a legal practitioner and consultant to the Mazi Nnamdi Kanu Global Defence Consortium.