Produce precedent of conviction with repealed law - Activists challenge Nigerian legal practitioners

A coalition of United States-based pro-Biafra activists, Rising Sun Foundation USA, has challenged Nigerian legal practitioners to produce any precedent of a court convicting an accused person with a repealed law.

The challenge was informed by the argument advanced by the defence team of jailed Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, leader Nnamdi Kanu, that his conviction was based on a repealed law.

The activists, in a statement by their chairman, Dr. Maxwell Dede, offered a financial reward of $10,000 for any verifiable precedent that a Nigerian court had convicted an accused person with repealed laws.

“Rising Sun Foundation USA hereby issues a formal, open challenge to Honourable Justice James Omotosho of the Federal High Court of Nigeria, and to every legal practitioner, academic, jurist, and legal institution in Nigeria and anywhere in the world:

“Produce one verifiable Nigerian judicial precedent in which a court lawfully entered a conviction founded on a statute that had already been repealed at the time of conviction.

“Anyone who provides verifiable documentary evidence of such a precedent satisfying this challenge will receive Ten Thousand United States Dollars ($10,000), paid into any bank account in the world within seven working days of verification,” a statement issued by Rising Sun on Wednesday read.

Explaining the reason for the challenge, the activists pointed out that, on 20 November 2025, an Abuja Federal High Court presided over by Justice James Omotosho convicted Nnamdi Kanu on seven counts.

“The central issue is that the conviction was founded on the Terrorism (Prevention) (Amendment) Act 2013—a law that had been repealed before the judgment was delivered. This violates the express command of Section 36(12) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Section 36(12) is absolute: no person shall be convicted of a criminal offence unless that offence is defined and the penalty prescribed in a written law in force. A repealed statute is not a written law in force,” the statement said.

The activists stressed that the Nigerian Supreme Court had made pronouncements to the effect that no accused person can be convicted on a law that is not in force.

The statement said, “Section 36(12) does not permit a conviction built on a statute that has ceased to be in force. Furthermore, in Temple Nwankwoala v. Federal Republic of Nigeria (2018), Justice Rhodes-Vivour stated the underlying constitutional principle without ambiguity: “A trial conducted under a law that has been repealed, no matter how well conducted and decided is a nullity.”

The activists noted that failure to produce the required precedent would show that the conviction was faulty.

The statement added, “The question is whether any Nigerian court has ever upheld a conviction whose actual legal foundation was a statute that had genuinely been repealed.

“Rising Sun Foundation USA therefore places a precise challenge before the legal profession: Produce the precedent, or demonstrate the actual statutory and constitutional foundation that lawfully permitted this conviction.

“The offer of $10,000 stands open and unconditional. Silence will not determine the appeal, but the failure to produce a qualifying precedent will establish that no such judicial authority has been produced in response to this challenge.”