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David v The people of Lagos State: Simplifying the bail process in criminal prosecution (I)

By Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, SAN

INTRODUCTION

The bail process in the administration of the criminal justice system is meant to be a temporary reprieve for all defendants who have allegations made against them before the Court, pending the conclusion of the trial and at times, the hearing and determination of the appeal. It was instituted in furtherance of the constitutional presumption of innocence by which a citizen who is charged with any criminal offence is presumed to be innocent until the contrary is proved by the accuser. This is meant to avoid the unfortunate situation in which the defendant is remanded in custody for a long period of time and later found to be innocent of the charges, whereas at times they may have spent a period exceeding the maximum punishment prescribed by law, had they been convicted.

This process is supported by the principle that it is better for 99 guilty persons to escape the judgment that they rightly deserve than for one innocent man to be punished unjustly. In cases of misdemeanour and other offences, bail is almost a right, but in cases of serious offences with capital punishment, bail is granted at the discretion of the presiding judge, based on the facts and circumstances of each case. Whereas one truly appreciates the challenges that prosecutors and prosecuting agencies face in cases where the defendant develops tactics to frustrate and delay their trials, it is still preferable to experience delay on behalf of the general society than for the innocent person to be incarcerated without cause.

The facts of the case of David v The People of Lagos are well known to prosecutors and defence counsel involved in criminal cases virtually in all police stations and other prosecuting agencies that operate detention facilities. The Adeniji Adele Police Division where the facts arose from was very notorious for subjecting suspects to violence and torture, corruption and such other unethical practices that the police officers deploy to extort money from citizens who fall prey to their antics.

This case started in March 2008 when the appellant was arrested and arraigned in court for armed robbery, just for volunteering to stand as surety to a suspect in custody and for refusing to pay the sum of money demanded as bribe by the investigating police officers. Judgment was delivered by the High Court of Lagos State on September 31, 2011. The appellant was in custody throughout the trial until he was sentenced to death. Unlike this particular appellant, many others in his position who have no means and resources to prosecute an appeal have lost their lives in very unfortunate circumstances.

The appeal against the judgment of the trial court was successful and judgment was delivered by the Court of Appeal on 25th June 2013. The Court of Appeal ordered a retrial, which would mean that the appellant would remain in custody for another uncertain period. There are other citizens who may not be so privileged like the appellant to afford a further appeal to the Supreme Court. The appellant’s appeal to the Supreme Court was upheld and judgment was delivered on 27th February 2025, spanning a period of 17 years of wasted life for the appellant. This also involves reputational damage, as the appellant would have become a pariah and an outcast in the eyes of reasonable men and also in his family, community and the larger society.

However, the issues arising in this case go beyond the appellant as criminal trial is not only for the accused person, but also for the complainant, the aggrieved party and the society at large, whose laws have been alleged to have been breached by the defendant and whose resources are being deployed for the investigation and prosecution.

THE FACT OF THE CASE

The facts of this case, as reported in (2025) NWLR (Pt.2024) 95, are that the appellant was arrested on 15th March 2008 in his house by three policemen in mufti around 3:30 am. The policemen took the appellant’s co-accused person who was the 1st defendant at the trial court with them when they went to arrest the appellant. The 1st defendant told the appellant at the point of arrest that he had been in police detention and would need the appellant to stand as surety for his bail.

The appellant was taken to the police station, the Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad unit, at Adeniji Adele Street, Lagos. The appellant was told to write a statement which he refused to do, but was persuaded to write his bio-data and pay the sum of N120,000 as bail for the 1st defendant. The appellant informed the police he could only pay N5,000.00 which was collected from him and he was thereafter taken to a room where he was tortured.

He was detained in the police cell between 15 March 2008 and 7 October 2008 before he was taken to the Magistrate Court and was thereafter arraigned at the High Court of Lagos State. At the trial, the appellant pleaded not guilty to the two-count charge of armed robbery and conspiracy to commit armed robbery with which he was charged. The prosecution called three witnesses and tendered three exhibits whilst the appellant testified by himself without calling any additional witness.

At the conclusion of the trial, the trial court convicted the appellant and sentenced him to death by hanging. Aggrieved by the judgment, the appellant appealed to the Court of Appeal. The Court of Appeal found that the prosecution failed to prove the ingredients of the offences and consequently allowed the appeal. However, rather than discharge and acquit the appellant, it ordered a retrial of the appellant at the High Court. The appellant was dissatisfied with the order of the Court of Appeal and he appealed to the Supreme Court, which unanimously allowed his appeal, thus setting him free.

The Facts and Circumstances to be Considered by Appellate Courts for Making an Order of Retrial:

Appellate courts must take peculiar facts and circumstances of each case into consideration before arriving at a decision whether or not to make an order of retrial. Such peculiar facts and circumstances are:

(a) whether there has been a serious lapse of time between the commission of the offence and the subsequent nullification of the trial so much so that there stands a risk that the loss of memory of events may affect the evidence and credit worthiness of witnesses as a result of the time lag;

(b) the time it would take to reassemble the witnesses if they are still available;

(c) the time it will take to start and complete another trial.

In this case, a retrial would not serve any useful purpose because the offences which the Court of Appeal ordered a retrial of took place 17 years previously, too long a time lapse to rely on the fickle, changeable and unstable nature of human memory of witnesses who may be recalled to testify, taking into consideration the passage of time and the ravages of aging. Furthermore, the appellant had been incarcerated for a long period of time and also the difficulty or near impossibility of procuring vital witnesses if a retrial was to be ordered already disclose special circumstances that would make a retrial oppressive.

Also, the primary reason for the nullification of the trial by the Court of Appeal was because the I.P.O. who testified as the PW2 before the trial court failed to show up to complete his evidence. There was no guarantee that he would be available if retrial was ordered. The order of retrial would only enable the respondent to put the appellant on a second trial when the ingredients of the offence were not established in the first trial. That would render the retrial oppressive to the appellant and thereby occasion a greater miscarriage of justice against the appellant than to refuse the order for retrial.

The Power of Appellate Court to Make Order of Retrial:

The power to make an order for a retrial is a power that lies within an appellate court’s judicial discretion, which discretion must be exercised judicially and judiciously. In exercising its discretion in favour of making an order of retrial, the paramount consideration of an appellate court is to ensure that justice is done to both parties and that the power is not exercised in such a manner that it would appear that the court is only concerned with one party being given the opportunity of remedying a defect in their case.

The Principles Governing Order of Re-trial in Criminal Trials:

The factors which must co-exist and be considered by the court in determining whether to order a retrial in circumstances where the original trial has been declared a nullity are as follows:

(a) where there has been an error in law, including the observance of the law of evidence or irregularity in procedure of such character that on the one hand the trial was not rendered a nullity and on the other hand the Court of Appeal is unable to say that there has been no miscarriage of justice;

(b) where leaving aside the error or irregularity, the evidence taken as a whole discloses a substantial case against the appellant;

(c) where there are no such special circumstances as would render it oppressive to put the appellant on trial a second time;

(d) where the offence or offences for which the appellant was convicted, or the consequences to the appellant or any other person of the conviction or acquittal of the appellant are not merely trivial;

(e) where to refuse to order a retrial would occasion a greater miscarriage of justice than to order it; and

(f) to enable the prosecution adduce evidence against the appellant which may convict him when his success at the appeal is based on the absence of that same evidence.

The guest who ate before the owner

By Suyi Ayodele

This is a folktale satire for the fallen Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its conqueror, the All Progressives Congress (APC). Where I come from, we give the Omoluabi half words as dinner; when he swallows them, they become whole in his belly. Please follow me on this voyage to the belly of the wisdom of our elders.

There is a saying among the elders of my place: when an okro tree grows taller than the farmer, it loses its stalk. Power in proud hands is never innocent. A man who will be given a title, those wise men of old say, must be of good character. Bad character, they further reason, spoils good destiny. Only a very few men have ori (destiny) and iwa (character). The best of prayers is for one to have both ori and iwa.

Long ago, in a town whose name has been eaten by time, there lived a stranger who arrived as a guest and soon became the fear of the household. He was loud, fiery, and perpetually angry. Though he was not the owner of the house, not even a tenant, the compound trembled when he coughed. Before long, people began to whisper a name for him, Alejòkúròkíoniléjeun: the guest who must leave before the owner can eat.

Only powerful men earn such names. This stranger was not merely powerful; he was dangerous.

Worse still, he lacked character. He had no patience for finesse, no respect for boundaries. He was the kind of man invited to dinner who would grip the wrist of his host and demand the biggest portion. A man of brawl. A man of war. Pray such a man does not pay you a visit!

To him, all snakes were edible (gbogbo ejò ni jije). Such men do not know which battles to avoid; they fight everything that moves. There was an Aare Ona Kakanfo, a Yoruba Generalissimo, like that. Because he lacked a war to fight, he stoked a rebellion against himself and rose to crush it. That is the way of those who are pathologically belligerent. When they have no one else to fight, they turn the battle inward.

In the house the troublesome stranger occupied, he soon learned the secrets of the shrine. And when a guest knows the inner recesses of your deity, defecation on the deity in there becomes sport.

Wisdom demands caution in such circumstances. If you would part ways with a lunatic, you must never let him hear your footfall. The owner of the house, no fool himself, endured, knowing that chasing away a dangerous guest who knows your rituals requires patience, allies, and timing. But the compound suffered. Neighbours whispered that one household had already collapsed because of this same guest, and another was next in line.

Yet power does not last forever. Something in the air suggested that the guest had already begun singing his nunc dimittis. Like old Simeon, who after he had seen the baby, Jesus (Luke 2:29–52), there was no more sight for him to behold, once a man has seen the inner chamber, there is little left to behold. Such a man grows reckless. He shouts at shadows. He quarrels with walls. He spares no one in his anger, real enemies and imagined ones alike. This is what our Alejòkúròkíoniléjeun is doing in the house of his host.

Anger, the elders say, does not know that the carrier is not sure-footed (ibínú ò mò pé eni tí ó gbé e kò dá l’ésè). A man in rage believes himself immortal.

The philosophers of old understood this. In the study of Stoicism, the philosophy in the field of the endurance of pain or hardship without the display of feelings and without complaint, Plato and Aristotle say anger is a painful reaction to significant, wrongful harm. While Plato suggests that anger should “be transformed from external retaliation to internal self-betterment and moral reform,” Aristotle sees it as a response to perceived injustice.

Alejokúròkíoniléjeun, in his fight against members of his household and those in his host’s compound, comes across as a good student of Aristotle. The fight is the one the elders of my place call ajakú akatá (fight-to-the-finish). There is no holding back; there is no retreat, there is no surrender.

But the original Stoicism philosophers, Lucius Annaeus Seneca, otherwise known as Seneca the Younger (4 BC–AD 65), and Epictetus (Gained or Acquired), consider anger as a destructive passion that should be controlled or eliminated if the carrier must live to tell the story. The two philosophers suggest that one should be calm and rational in the face of anger, seeing those responsible as not opponents but members of the family.

They hinge their argument on “The Paradox of Anger”, where they submit that “Anger is a double-edged sword: it highlights moral wrongs and can fuel powerful change, yet it often distorts reality and harms the angry person or others if uncontrolled. The philosophical challenge lies in discerning when anger serves justice and when it becomes destructive, a fire within, that is both poison and medicine, demanding wisdom to manage.” (See Citti Francesco’s Seneca and the Moderns, in Bartsch, Shadi; Schiesaro, Alessandro (eds), The Cambridge Companion to Seneca, Cambridge University Press, 2015).

The last part of Seneca and Epictetus’ admonition is what Alejokúròkíoniléjeun lacks. The most dangerous man is one who is powerful but lacks character. It is worse if the same man has a bad temper alongside his bad character. The end of such a man is an unmitigated disaster.

Plato warned that anger should be turned inward, into moral reform. Aristotle excused it as a response to injustice. But the Stoics, Seneca and Epictetus, knew better: anger is a fire that burns its bearer first. It is both poison and medicine, demanding wisdom to manage. Without wisdom, it destroys. These are not mere conjectures. There is an old story the elders tell to explain this.

Once, there lived a great hunter and his beautiful wife. They were generous people, loved by neighbours, feared by beasts. But they had one flaw: terrible anger. When rage seized them, they fought like sworn enemies, destroying their own household.

They were also childless. After many years, they consulted the Oracle. The divination was clear and frightening: “The gods have a child for you, but your anger will kill him before his destiny ripens.” Terrified, they begged the gods, promising restraint. The gods relented, and a son was born. Joy filled the house.

One day, while the mother worked on the farm, she laid the child beneath a baobab tree. Unknown to her, a gorilla lived there. Each day, the gorilla descended, lifted the child, and sang: irunú fùfùfù baba e/kò ní jé kí o d’àgbà/irunú fùfùfù iyà e, kò ní jé kí o t’ójó (Your father’s anger will not allow you to grow old; your mother’s anger will not allow you to fulfil your days). The child laughed.

When the mother discovered this, anger seized her. She threw stones. The gorilla used the child as a shield and fled. This continued until fury overwhelmed her reason. She reported to her husband. That night, their home became a battlefield. They nearly trampled the child to death.

The hunter resolved to act. He prepared poisoned arrows, máfenukèjè, poison without antidote. He lay in ambush. The gorilla descended again, singing the same song. The hunter, blinded by rage, released the arrow. The gorilla lifted the child, and the arrow pierced the baby’s heart.

The child died without a cry. The gorilla changed its song: irunú fùfùfù baba e/kò jé kí o d’àgbà/irunú fùfùfù yà e, kò jé kí o t’ójó (Your father’s anger did not allow you to grow old; your mother’s anger did not allow you to fulfil your days). Then it vanished forever. The parents wailed until death claimed them too. No child remained to perform their final rites. That, the elders say, is what anger does.

A powerful man with anger and secrets plays dangerous games, mistaking fear for loyalty, noise for strength, rage for courage. They forget that institutions, like shrines, rot when desecrated from within. History is full of such guests, the Alejokúròkíoniléjeun of this era. They eat before the owner. They scatter households. They collapse compounds. And when they finally fall, the house they claimed to defend lies in ruins.

The PDP is in a coma today, because its Alejokúròkíoniléjeun of a child happened to it. The child is a powerful guest in the household of the APC. It will take the entire strength of the equally dangerous and powerful men in the ruining APC to ship out Alejokúròkíoniléjeun’s bull in the APC’s China shop. One can only hope that too much damage would not have been done before that is achieved.

I wonder what APC was thinking when it accommodated the stranger in its house. A man who made a waste of his household just to be your guest will not spare the brick and mortar in his host’s house. This is why the advice from Alejokúròkíoniléjeun to his host’s children not to “run their mouths” is very instructive.

A man who, “today”, is “enjoying” his state, without “knowing” “those who did the work,” should not challenge the benevolent spirit that cracked the palm kernel. Alejokúròkíoniléjeun has more secrets. Those of the landlord of the hosting family are part of them. If the children of the host are wise, they should know how not to provoke a man of anger like Alejokúròkíoniléjeun.

The troublesome stranger knows too much about how the chief host was “made” and I take a bet: he will not hesitate to spill the beans if provoked! A man of anger and the man on the local Ayo game slate have one thing in common; they don’t know how to keep secrets (Orò ò bò l’énu aláyò). Incidentally, Alejòkúròkíoniléjeun is playing a dangerous Ayo game with the politics of his home state. His host and his children should wise up.

Only Alejòkúròkíoniléjeun knows what members of his immediate family bought in his shop and did not pay for. He alone has the franchise to the root of the crisis bedevilling the home since May 29, 2023. What is clear to the public is that Alejokúròkíoniléjeun is rabidly angry. And in the fit of his anger, he spares nobody; not even the host, who provides him the present platform to move about in a convoy, where his security guards drawn from all the nation’s security architecture outflank that of the Okaegbe (the head of his family).

The next victim of our angry Alejokúròkíoniléjeun, one can easily predict, will be his chief host.

And in all sincerity, I pray Alejokúròkíoniléjeun not to stop at how the most important institution in the land was compromised to give his troubled host undue advantage. He should answer his father’s name by telling the entire world how his chief host became the number one man in his troubled community.

Honestly, this community stinks with men like Alejokúròkíoniléjeun and his docile chief host! Tufiakwa!

The views expressed by contributors are strictly personal and not of Law & Society Magazine.

Black is white, foul is Fair, wrong is right, By Lasisi Olagunju

A trending video shows Uganda’s president, Yoweri Museveni, interrogating his national football team after their recent loss to Nigeria. His question was simple but unsettling: Why did you all go to attack and leave the goalkeeper to do your work? Then came the clincher: In the army, we don’t do that.

This is far more than a lesson in football; it is a theory of state failure. We run our country the same way Uganda’s team played that match. Museveni spoke of AOR (Area of Responsibility). A Nigerian (politician) would likely ask: What is that? We do not have AOR in the management of our national affairs in Nigeria. Everyone rushes forward to score, to be seen, to take credit. No one stays back to defend the system from predatory goal-poachers. We chase goals and gold—and in the process, we concede goals. The result is a nation that is structurally broken and perpetually defeated.

We wasted the whole of 2025 chasing what may be farfetched – the goals and gold of 2027. The year in-between the two is here now with the certainty that it will be a year of baleful politics, of deepening crises and ‘wars’ across the divides.

The New Year invites reflection. Politicians defect, chasing elite deals; with disdain and contempt, they spurn public good; the people look on, envying the very hands that bruise them. Thirty-five days before his death, Chief Obafemi Awolowo took a deep look at the bedridden Nigeria, and said the “fault is in our attitudes and ways of life”; he then declared that “our stars have been dimmed by incompetent rulers.” Today, those stars no longer merely flicker; the dimming have burnt out. Why does the past always appear kinder than the present? The lodestars have been dimmed.

Was it Shakespeare who suggested that the golden age lies before us, not behind us? Whoever said it may well have been right, for his time. The harder question is whether that view holds true for us.

I start with this long note from a classmate:

“I cannot now clearly say whether it was 1972 or 1973. Dates blur with age, but some memories refuse to fade. What I know with certainty is that I had not yet started school. We lived then on Hogan Bassey Crescent, just behind the National Stadium in Lagos—a neighbourhood of the displaced Lagosians uprooted in the late sixties to make way for the Eko Bridge. We were tenants in one of the flats, ordinary people in an ordinary struggle.

“One afternoon, I wandered away from home with a neighbour who was only two days younger than I was. My mother, a seamstress, was indoors stitching dresses, unaware that two little girls had slipped beyond the gate. About 800 metres from home, we crossed a road the way children do—without caution, without calculation. There was no looking right, left, and right again. There was only play, and then, impact.
I remember it was a Volkswagen. The next clear memory is of regaining consciousness in a hospital bed, my body swaddled in bandages. My friend escaped with minor injuries. I did not. My left thigh was fractured. Both legs were suspended in the air for what felt like an eternity; how long, I could not tell. Childhood has no calendar for pain.

“That period offered experiences that today’s Nigerian child would dismiss as fiction. My family, at the time, was navigating financial turbulence. We shared a two-bedroom flat with another family. My father was no one of consequence, just a struggling Nigerian, protective of his own, with little beyond that instinct. I say this only to establish context: there was no privilege here, no influence to deploy.

“Before my mother even knew that disaster had struck, a passing military vehicle stopped, rescued us, and took us to the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, Idi-Araba. By the time our families arrived (after searching hospitals blindly) we had been stabilised. No one asked for money. No one asked for a guarantor. No one asked where our parents were. Two little girls arrived without names or contacts, and were properly treated – and saved.

“My mother stepped in where the nurses stopped. When I was eventually discharged, my legs were free but my body was not. I remained bedridden and had to return to the hospital every two days for follow-up checks. My father had no car. Transporting a child with a healing thigh bone every other day would have been an ordeal. So LUTH sent an ambulance.

“Every other day, for weeks, an ambulance came to our house, took my mother and me to the hospital, and brought us back. Recently, I asked my mother if she paid for this service. She could not remember paying a kobo for the treatment, or for the ambulance runs.

“When I tell my children this story, they argue with me. They insist it could not have happened in this same country. Sometimes, even I wonder if it was a dream.

“As I write this, another memory returns: me, a small child, singing “ambulance mi ti ń bọ” (my ambulance is on the way) while the little feet of my friends gathered by my bed every morning after breakfast, dancing and clapping at the arrival of my ambulance.

“What changed?

“Who changed it?

“How did a system once guided by duty fracture beyond repair?

“The Anthony Joshua accident has been on my mind. Sometimes, class pales before a system that no longer works.
God bless Nigeria, my country.”

The above happened to one of my university classmates. Nigeria took care of her in her childhood and in her youth, she today works with a multi-national agency. The lady shared the experience with me as we discussed the state of the nation on New Year’s Day.

Memories, sometimes, are cherished; nostalgia is beautiful. Thoroughly disillusioned, today we say the best days are behind us. The very optimistic among us say the best is waiting somewhere ahead. Whatever it is, “old is gold”, we celebrate timeless moments and the lessons distilled from experience.

There is another story about another person, this time, the narrator is a male:

Schooling in another town, the teenager always looked forward to his weekends when he would reunite with his parents. This Friday, he got home from school and met the family house shut.

He was shocked. It was the first time he would meet the front door locked and the whole house desolate.

What happened? Neighbours came around and informed the teenager that his mother had been ill and taken to Osogbo five days earlier.

He burst into tears. Neighbours took him in for the night. The following day, he was by his mother’s bedside at the Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Hospital (Jaleyemi), Osogbo.

For the next three months or so, the sick was there receiving the best attention anyone could get. Then, one day, she was told she was now okay and should prepare to go home the following day.

Her husband and other relations were worried. Since she was brought into the hospital, the bills had piled up. How much? There was no information. Then the shock: She wasn’t going to pay a dime; government had taken care of it. Health is now free, courtesy of the new government – the UPN government of Bola Ige.

The patient in the above story was my mother; my own mother. It was in 1980, forty-five years ago. I am the narrator.

Now, this: the hospital was not a government hospital; it was (still is) a Catholic hospital, private. How it was done and made free for my mother, I am still trying to find out. I am not sure any of my children would believe this story if I told them. But the experience happened; it was real, I am a living witness to it.

That same era was a time when education was free, truly free. I got admitted into what was known as Secondary Modern School in September 1978. I paid N18 as school fees. The following September, I paid the same amount. The following month, October, 1979, we got a refund of the fees. The school authorities told us “education is now free” courtesy of the new government of Awolowo’s party. Our teachers did not steal and eat the refund; we (I) did not steal it too. I took it home. I saw something like satisfaction in my father’s eyes when I gave him the money; something like “my vote for Awolowo’s party (Unity Party of Nigeria, UPN) was worth it.”

Growing up, I saw government in close proximity with the people. Take this letter from my governor to every secondary school child in the old Oyo State who was set for Form Two in 1981:

14 July, 1981.

My dear child,

You have just completed the first year of your secondary school education; I hope you had a very useful school year and laid a good foundation for your career.

Shortly before you left your primary school last year, many people thought it was not possible to admit you and the over 120,000 of your colleagues into secondary schools in one year. Because of the commitment of our government and our party, the Unity Party of Nigeria, to providing all of you with free secondary education, we believed it was possible.

We made it possible because we also believe that every child, like yourself, is entitled to be provided with education by the state. We believe, too, that we must not let any of you become the servant of the opponents of this programme; hence we did all we could to make it possible. Everyone has now seen that it has been made possible.

Let me recall some of what I told you on September 26, last year, your first day in Grammar School: “Today, some 100,000 of you, boys and girls, in all parts of Oyo State, in cities, towns and villages from poor homes, from rich homes, from not-so-rich homes, are entering secondary school for the first time. I want you to realise that there are millions of Nigerian children in other parts of the country who do not have this opportunity as you have.”

I hope you make use of the great opportunity. I trust that you took care of the books you were given at school. I hope you shall be of great help to your parents during the holidays. As a member of the Young Pioneers Movement, you must and shall be good example to others and to your junior brothers and sisters who will join you in September this year.

Have a nice holiday, enjoy yourself and be good.

I am, Your Uncle ‘Bola.

That was 44 years ago. Every secondary school student going into class two got a copy of the letter signed by the governor, Uncle Bola Ige.

My first day at the University of Ife, I was assigned a bed space at Angola Hall. At the Porters’ Lodge, every Jambite got a note on the dos, don’ts and the services offered in the facility. In that note was this line: “electricity is constant; the taps are running…”

The past was golden. We look back not because yesterday was perfect, but, as someone said,it is because it helps us measure how far we have come, and sometimes, how far we have drifted.

Andrew S. Cairncross in his ‘Shakespeare and the Golden Age’ (1970)
draws a line between two opposite sides of the same coin: the golden age and the age of gold. The first was Eden, Paradise, the past with its fair and fairness. The second is “the age where money was the supreme or the only value…”

The past of today was definitely golden; today is the age of gold, money is the supreme and the only value.

In ‘Timon of Athens’ Shakespeare says where gold is allowed to rule, it never hestates to make “Black white, foul fair, wrong right,
Base noble, old young, coward valiant…
knit and break religions, bless the accursed,
Make the hoar leprosy adored,
place thieves
And give them title…”

The playwright wrote about today’s Nigeria.

We lost the golden age of the First Republic and the silver of the Second. We’ve made a jungle of what is supposed to be our Garden of Eden. Why has the good we once knew eluded us? In Chief Awolowo’s time, it was bad leadership that dimmed the stars; today, it is no longer leadership; it is not followership; it lies deeper than both. We are a patch-patch nation, fractured by prolonged structural fissures, with the grim potential for simmering tensions to erupt. A country called Somalia shows the end point of unrestrained central failure. What we today call insecurity and an epidemic of poverty frighteningly place Nigeria at the Somalia crossroads.

Why is it difficult for us to accept that reforming federalism can give the right leadership, strengthen unity and peace, and engender prosperity while its neglect will open doors to forces that pull apart the parts? And centrifugal pressures don’t abate until they are done. In its abject failure as a state, Somalia still has a Somaliland that is almost out of its map. Politicians in this country think they have conquered the people and that all we deserve are the coming elections and the elections after the next. In the Yoruba play, Saworoide, there is this repetition that builds tension and inevitability: “Ko i ye won; y’o ye won l’ola” (They do not understand now; they will understand tomorrow).

In droves, politicians defect from the people to the palace’s comfort; they circle power like carrion-eating birds. The people no longer matter. Professor Toyin Falola, in an interview I did for him at the weekend, spoke about defections, democracy and decay. I flow with him. A ‘democratic’ system that conquers its people, that criminally gives no alternative, is rotted; it is an ant-infested wood. Ant-infested woods end by fire. Who will tell our husbands that where there is internal decay, foreign intrusion comes easily. Because Venezuela’s promise went rancid and lost its savour, as the Yoruba would say, it became easy for Donald Trump to pour sand into the salt of its sovereignty on Saturday. For Nigeria, the vultures are hovering.

May the new year redeem our country.

The views expressed by contributors are strictly personal and not of Law & Society Magazine.

Akinlaja salutes Ondo Governor Aiyedatiwa at 61

Prominent and respected Labour chief, community leader, and former member of the House of Representatives who represented Ondo East and West Federal Constituency, Hon. (Comrade) Joseph Iranola Akinlaja, has joined the entire nation in extending warm and heartfelt birthday wishes to the Governor of Ondo State, His Excellency, Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa, on the occasion of his 61st birthday.

Aiyedatiwa, a successful and industrious Nigerian businessman and politician, was born on January 12, 1965.

According to Akinlaja, Aiyetadiwa’s 61st birthday serves as an opportunity to celebrate his life, achievements, and unwavering commitment to the betterment of Ondo State.

He noted that the Governor’s visionary approach to governance, coupled with his passion for the welfare of the people, has marked him out for greater glory and has equally fostered significant progress and development within the state since his inception to office.

The former Deputy President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) further expressed profound gratitude for the Governor’s selfless service, leadership, and contributions to the growth and prosperity of the State. Under his capable guidance, the state has witnessed remarkable advancements in various sectors, bringing about positive change and improving the lives of the citizenry.

A statement made available to newsmen on Monday by the former General Secretary of NUPENG reads in parts, “I feel so elated to join other high-profile Nigerians to celebrate the Governor of Ondo State, His Excellency Lucky Aiyedatiwa.

“This highly revered leader has intentionally provided courageous leadership in the South-West to defend the people of the region on many occasions, especially on the issue of insecurity, restructuring, true federalism, good governance as well as fight against cultism, land grabbing and other violent crimes.

“Governor Aiyedatiwa’s penchant for diligence is evident in his contributions toward the development of Nigeria’s socio-economic and political landscape based on his good sense of commitment, loyalty, integrity and dignity, which are rare in our body politic. Without being frivolous, he is a blessing to Ondo State who everyone is remarkably proud of.

“I also praise Ondo First Lady, Mrs. Oluwaseun Aiyedatiwa, for being a pillar of support to Governor Aiyedatiwa. She deserves to be celebrated for impacting many lives positively as First Lady of Ondo State.

“On this occasion of Governor Aiyedatiwa’s 61st birthday I wish him more years in good health and wisdom as he continues to render more service to humanity, Ondo State, and Nigeria as a whole. Congratulations Your Excellency!”

New Leadership, high stakes as Chiroma  hands over to Odusote at Nigerian Law School

Nigeria’s apex legal training institution has entered a new phase of leadership following the formal handover of authority at the Nigerian Law School, where Dr Olugbemisola Titilayo Odusote assumed office as Director-General.

The transition ceremony, held on Monday at the Nigerian Law School headquarters in Abuja, marked the end of the tenure of Prof. Isa Hayatu Chiroma, SAN, and the beginning of what officials described as a continuity-driven but forward-looking administration.

Dr Odusote becomes the 10th Director General of the Nigerian Law School, taking over an institution that plays a central role in shaping Nigeria’s legal profession and regulating access to the Bar.

Speaking during the handover, Chiroma praised the management and staff of the Law School for their cooperation throughout his administration, attributing much of his tenure’s success to institutional teamwork and shared commitment to reform.

He expressed confidence in Odusote’s leadership, describing her as well-equipped to guide the institution through its next phase. Chiroma pledged continued support to his successor, saying he remained available to offer advice and guidance in the interest of the Law School.

“There is no doubt that Dr Odusote will pilot the affairs of the Nigerian Law School to even greater heights,” he said.

The ceremony included the formal and symbolic transfer of official documents and responsibilities, underscoring the completion of the leadership transition.

In her acceptance remarks, Odusote thanked God for the opportunity to serve and paid tribute to Chiroma’s eight-year tenure, which she described as transformative and foundational to the institution’s growth.

She commended her predecessor’s achievements, noting that his administration laid a solid framework for excellence, stability and institutional reform. Odusote also acknowledged his mentorship and guidance, as well as the cooperation of the Law School’s management and staff.

She pledged to uphold the traditions and standards of the Nigerian Law School while consolidating on existing reforms and advancing the mandate of the Council of Legal Education.

“I am fully committed to giving my very best in advancing the ideals of this institution and building on the achievements already recorded,” she said.

Delivering closing remarks on behalf of the management and staff, the Secretary to the Council and Director of Administration, Ms A.O. Osho, praised Chiroma’s leadership and service, describing his tenure as exemplary and impactful. She assured the new Director General of the full support and cooperation of the Council and management.

Following the formal proceedings, Chiroma led Odusote on a guided tour of key facilities and ongoing projects at the Law School’s Abuja headquarters, symbolically passing the baton as the institution begins a new chapter under fresh leadership.

Who is Dr Olugbemisola Titilayo Odusote?

Dr Olugbemisola Titilayo Odusote is the 10th Director General of the Nigerian Law School and the first woman to hold the position since the institution was established in 1962. She assumed office on January 10, 2026.

A seasoned legal scholar and administrator, Odusote has spent decades in Nigeria’s legal education system, building a reputation for academic rigour, institutional reform and mentorship. Before she was appointed Director General, she served in senior academic and administrative roles within the Nigerian Law School, where she was closely involved in curriculum development, student assessment and regulatory compliance under the Council of Legal Education.

Known for her strong grasp of legal training standards and Bar examination processes, Odusote is widely regarded as an insider with deep institutional memory of the Law School’s operations. Her appointment signals continuity in reforms while raising expectations for modernisation, improved academic standards and stronger governance within Nigeria’s legal training framework.

As Director General, she is expected to consolidate existing reforms, strengthen discipline and professionalism, and guide the Law School through growing demands on legal education in Africa’s most populous country.

2027 elections and the evolving opposition

Preparations towards the next general polls should include vibrant alternatives for Nigerians, writes MONDAY PHILIPS EKPE

If the move by some over-ambitious persons to draw the next general elections closer fails, the polls will be held in February 2027, the original date, approximately a year from now. Meaning, the polity is set for heightened politicking, the previous year having already witnessed an unprecedented dose of politics to the disadvantage of governance – the most visible sign being the manic defections of governors from rival parties, notably the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the ruling All Progressives Party (APC).

One common denominator binds together virtually all the state chief executives who have so jumped ship: eye on their prospective second terms in office. Call it party betrayal. Call it shameless survival strategy. Call it long-throat. Or, blatant rape of the constitution and electoral act which appear weak and helpless in matters relating to the cross-carpeting of elected officials. Do such labels even matter now? Today, APC stands like an iroko enamoured against the scramble for nutrients, dominance and prominence of less endowed trees and shrubs. On the surface, at least.

Arithmetic favours the lopsided optics. The APC governed 20 states by the time President Bola Tinubu assumed power in May 2023. At the last count, nine more have been added to that number. And the migration may not have ended. These roving governors whose critics often describe as opportunists do not seem to bother about that appellation. Instead, they’re more interested in parading themselves as carriers and controllers of every strategic political structure in their states, claims that could still turn exaggerated and delusional as alignments, mobilisations and promotions progress. This is the year that may prove stubborn for the much-touted excuses of aligning erstwhile opposition states with Abuja in order to reap massive benefits. All things being equal.

But in the unpredictable arena of politics, especially of our favour-dispensing and patronage-wielding type, allegiances and outcomes can change quickly. There exists at the moment reasons some people swear that only gamblers would put their money, energy and hope into the parties and groups that are currently opposing the incumbent government. Can’t really blame them after watching and feeling the enormous powers of incumbency on display. There doesn’t seem to be limits to what holders of institutional authority and custodians of state resources can achieve. That includes clinging to positions against the wishes of the electorate. Well, the opposite happened in 2015 when, for the first time in the nation’s history, the then administration of PDP’s President Goodluck Jonathan was defeated by the APC presidential Candidate, Major General Muhammadu Buhari.

We shouldn’t forget, though, that times have changed and the circumstances aren’t the same. More still, Jonathan and Tinubu are two separate individuals both in character and conduct. Political scientists must be busy collecting data on the ongoing activities that are narrowing the country’s once truly competitive political space. The fear of Nigeria becoming a one-party entity is now palpable. And many analysts have fingered the president’s overriding push to pick another presidential term for this phenomenon. Credible as that may be, the other major actors can’t readily prove their own innocence. As hinted earlier, the ambitions of these political journeymen and women have equally blurred their vision and capacity to uphold pluralism, a key ingredient of functional democracy.

Undesirable as that is, our opposition politicians need to be properly advised that the form of democracy – one-party and all – practiced here could well be the least problem of Nigerians right now. Average citizens are more concerned with the critical issues of simple existence: subsistence, personal productivity (even if marginal), safety, relative liquidity, and access to basic amenities. They’ve seen the evolution of Nigeria’s governing systems from the colonial times to independence, military, various shades of republics, up to the present dispensation. Many of them wonder why their lives cannot be described as progressive in the true sense of the word. Promises made by one crowd of politicians soon give way to those pledged by yet another batch. Results, tangible and enduring outputs, have remained elusive. And the trend doesn’t look prepared to abate.

This largescale, longstanding disillusionment lends extra meaning and burden to the forthcoming elections. Next year, APC will clock 12 years as the driver of the federal government and over two third of the subnational administrations. Not to mention its overwhelming majority in the National Assembly and most of the state legislatures. Many of the arsenals and shortcomings it applied vigorously against the Jonathan government are now being packaged by its rivals for their offensive. Again, since ideological lines are absent between the parties – even for academic purposes – and all the people see are men and women struggling to clinch and deploy political power for selfish gains, the opposition figures would do well to approach this season differently.

Doing so would require being seen to be in serious pursuit of the general good, not the parochial actualisation of private aspirations, no matter how old. If things had gone the way they should, PDP would have been the best choice to withstand APC. But too many desertions, internal crises, external sabotages and litigations have left what was once Africa’s largest political platform fighting for its tortuous life. But, then, never say never. Earlier in the week, Jonathan told its leaders in Abuja what could be a desperately needed jab in the arm. The Dr Kabiru Turaki-led National Working Committee left the former president after presenting its “Rebirth Agenda” to him, receiving his assurances and also knowing that he was still a bona fide member of the PDP. Some encouragement, just about any boost, would do at this point.

The African Democratic Congress (ADC) presents an even more intriguing picture. It was adopted in July last year by some frontline opposition leaders like Waziri Atiku Abubakar, Mr Peter Obi, Mr Rotimi Amaechi, Malam Nasir El Rufai and Senator David Mark as an alternative forum to edge Tinubu’s government. However, it was only in November and December that Abubakar and Obi officially decamped from PDP and Labour Party (LP) into ADC. Dr Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) is expected to join the train. The three men were their parties’ candidates on the 2023 presidential ballot. But hoping that their cumulative votes would simple flow into ADC this time would be utopian.

Nigeria’s political climate right now is somewhat cloudy. Prioritising the Nigerian people by adequately communicating to them the better economic, social and political options on offer is non-negotiable. Those warming up to remove Tinubu from the Villa mustn’t be perceived as a band of buccaneers bent on taking undue advantage of the longsuffering Nigerian masses. Even slaves are entitled to jubilees.

Ekpe, PhD, is a member of THISDAY Editorial Board

The views expressed by contributors are strictly personal and not of Law & Society Magazine.

Akwa Ibom deputy governor denies sponsoring ‘phantom bill’ amid viral claims

The Akwa Ibom State Government has dismissed as false and misleading claims circulating on social media that the Deputy Governor, Senator Akon Eyakenyi, sponsored a bill currently before the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly.

In a statement issued on Sunday, the Office of the Deputy Governor described the reports as “fake news,” stressing that Senator Eyakenyi has not sponsored any bill in the state legislature or elsewhere and is not aware of the existence of the purported legislation.

The disclaimer, signed by the Deputy Governor’s Press Secretary, Omen Bassey, followed what officials said was a surge of public enquiries directed to the Deputy Governor’s office over the alleged bill, which has been widely shared online without attribution to any official source.

“Let me state categorically that Her Excellency, Senator (Dr) Akon Eyakenyi hasn’t sponsored any bill in the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly or anywhere else currently,” the statement said, adding that the claims falsely credited her as the initiator or sponsor of an “imaginary” piece of legislation.

The office further clarified that, under Akwa Ibom’s governance structure, the Deputy Governor—who is a member of the State Executive Council—cannot personally sponsor legislation. Any executive bill, the statement noted, must first be deliberated upon by the State Executive Council and formally transmitted to the House of Assembly by the Governor or an authorised representative.

Officials also pointed out that the alleged bill did not originate from any recognised communication channels of either the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly or the state government, raising further doubts about its authenticity.

“The spurious report neither emanated from the official communication channels of the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly nor the Akwa Ibom State Government,” the statement said.

The Deputy Governor’s office urged members of the public to disregard the circulating claims in their entirety and to rely solely on verified government platforms when seeking information on legislative or policy matters.

The episode highlights growing concerns among public officials about the speed at which unverified political information spreads on social media, often creating confusion and unnecessary public anxiety. Authorities warned that the trend poses risks to public trust in democratic institutions and called for greater media literacy and verification by citizens.

“This kind of misinformation underscores the need for the public to cultivate the habit of confirming controversial reports through official channels before attaching any weight to them,” the statement concluded.

The women who feed Nigeria and why 2026 must change the story

Long before agriculture was a subject of policy discussions, women across Nigeria and West Africa sustained families, markets, and economies through food. As the UN declares 2026 the International Year of the Woman Farmer (IYWF), it is time to recognise, invest in, and stand with the women who have always fed the nation.

By Kirsten Okenwa

Our grandmothers, mothers, sisters, or aunts fed the nation before our policy makers called it a food system. Long before food systems became something we discussed at conferences or wrote into policy documents, Nigerian women were already doing the work. They were farming, processing, transporting, and trading. Our women were feeding families and cities quietly and steadily every day.

Across Nigeria and the wider ECOWAS region, women have always been central to how food moves from soil to plate, from village to market, from one generation to the next. Long before terms like “value chain” or “nutrition security” existed, our women understood something basic: people must eat, and someone has to make that happen.

I was reminded of this during one of our rural coaching sessions. We asked participants to talk about livelihood and resilience. A young police constable raised his hand and spoke about his mother, an enterprising garri dealer. She transports garri from Benin City to the busy Idi Oro market in Lagos. He talked about the early morning labour, long journeys, and slim profit margins. Then he said, simply, “That garri business is how our family survived.”

That sentence says more about Nigeria’s food system than many reports ever could. Women farmers and food traders, both rural and urban, have raised doctors, lawyers, engineers, teachers, civil servants, and countless everyday citizens. They have paid school fees from cassava harvests. They have kept food on tables through smoked fish, palm oil, grains, vegetables, and garri. When the economy tightens, it is often women’s food businesses that stretch to absorb the shock.

Yet for all this labour, women remain largely invisible in how agriculture and food security are discussed. That is why the United Nations, through the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), declaring 2026 as the International Year of the Woman Farmer (IYWF 2026) matters, especially for Nigeria and West Africa. This declaration is not about celebration alone. It is about correction.

Across the ECOWAS region, women play essential roles in agrifood systems, producing food, processing harvests, preserving crops and seeds, and trading across local and cross-border markets. In many communities, women do most of the agricultural work, yet own little or no land. They dominate informal food markets but struggle to access finance, technology, and extension services. They adapt daily to climate stress but are rarely included in climate planning. In plain terms, women carry the food system, but the system does not carry them.

The International Year of the Woman Farmer brings attention to these realities and calls for collective action. According to the FAO, the year will promote investment to close gender gaps, strengthen women’s livelihoods, and support women’s leadership across agrifood value chains. The goal is clear: fairer, more inclusive, and more resilient food systems. But this conversation must stay grounded in lived experience.

At Rohan Rural Support Initiative, we work closely with rural women and youth across the food value chain. We see what statistics often miss: rural women who understand land and seasons better than any manual. Women who process food with skills passed down through generations. Women who manage trade routes, markets, and relationships with quiet expertise. These women are not waiting to be empowered. They are already working. What they need is access; access to land security, finance, training, appropriate technology, and markets. They need systems that recognise their contribution and remove barriers that keep them small and informal. Our work focuses on practical support: building skills, strengthening value addition, improving food safety, and supporting livelihoods that can grow, not just survive.

We also see the ripple effects. When women earn more, households eat better. Children stay in school. Communities become more resilient to climate and economic shocks. This is not theory. It is a daily reality across Nigeria and West Africa. This is why framing women farmers as a “vulnerable group” misses the point. Women farmers are not marginal but foundational. Empowering women farmers is not charity but a strategy. It is about recognising that food security in Nigeria and the ECOWAS region rests on women’s labour, knowledge, and leadership. It is about designing policies that reflect real lives. Financial systems that see women farmers as bankable. Agricultural decisions that include the voices of those who feed us.

The International Year of the Woman Farmer gives us a chance to do this differently. It asks governments to listen better. It challenges institutions to invest smarter. It calls on organisations to deepen practical support. And it reminds all of us that food does not appear by magic. It arrives because women wake early, work long, adapt constantly, and refuse to let families go hungry. The question is not whether women farmers matter. History has already answered that. The real question is whether we are ready to match their contribution with recognition, investment, and action because long before we named it a food system, women were already feeding the nation, and they still are.

Kirsten Okenwa works with rural women and youth across Nigeria and the ECOWAS food systems through Rohan Rural Support Initiative. Her work bridges industrial chemistry, food science, social enterprise, and peace-building, centring practical, community-led approaches to food security and livelihoods.

₦3.5 Trillion Budget Breach: How new projects quietly re-entered Nigeria’s 2026 budget

An examination of Nigeria’s proposed 2026 Appropriation Bill has revealed the insertion of at least ₦3.50 trillion worth of new projects by Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), despite an explicit federal directive barring the introduction of fresh capital projects amid mounting fiscal pressures.

The findings come as controversy continues to swirl around alleged unauthorised alterations to newly passed tax legislation—fuelling broader concerns over governance, legislative oversight and adherence to fiscal rules.

Analysis of the budget documents shows that new project entries within MDAs alone amount to ₦844.49 billion. When allocations classified under Service Wide Votes are included, the total value of newly introduced projects rises sharply to ₦3.50 trillion—about 15.09 percent of the proposed ₦23.21 trillion capital budget for 2026.

The scale of the additions directly contradicts a December 2025 directive issued by the Federal Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning, which instructed MDAs to roll over at least 70 percent of their 2025 capital allocations into 2026. The Abridged Budget Call Circular warned agencies against proposing new projects, stressing that scarce resources should be used to complete ongoing ones and that all expenditures would be subjected to strict scrutiny for value for money.

Yet a detailed review of the Appropriation Bill indicates that at least 82 MDAs introduced one or more new capital or programme items. In total, more than 400 fresh project lines appear in the budget, ranging from multibillion-naira infrastructure and health initiatives to smaller constituency-style interventions such as boreholes, training programmes and equipment procurement.

Service Wide Votes account for the largest share of the new allocations, totalling ₦2.66 trillion across 18 newly introduced items. The single largest entry is ₦1.70 trillion earmarked for outstanding contractors’ liabilities from 2024, representing nearly half of all new project spending.

Other major allocations include three separate ₦100 billion provisions for the Nigeria Development Finance Corporation, the Economic Transformation Finance Programme and the Nigeria Growth Investment Fund. Additional entries include ₦20 billion for the capitalisation of INFRACO, ₦30 billion for a Department of State Services special operations fund, and ₦110.31 billion for the Nigerian Air Force to settle outstanding obligations on T-129 ATAK and Mi-35 helicopters.

The budget also allocates ₦283.85 billion for presidential air fleet logistics and management, including the operation of the National Forest Guard, alongside take-off grants for newly created MDAs amounting to ₦41.12 billion in recurrent spending and ₦19.50 billion in capital expenditure. Provisions were also made for pension increases and gratuity payments.

At the MDA level, the Budget Office of the Federation recorded the highest value of new projects, with ₦375 billion allocated for additional financing under the Power Sector Recovery Operation. This single item accounts for more than 44 percent of new MDA-level projects and over 10 percent of the total value of newly introduced spending.

The Federal Ministry of Transport followed with ₦210.53 billion in new projects, including consultancy services for major rail initiatives and the construction of transport terminals across the six geopolitical zones. Other notable allocations include ₦24 billion for nationwide renovation of the National Library of Nigeria, ₦15 billion for the National Blood Service Commission, and ₦9.14 billion for projects under the Sokoto Rima River Basin Development Authority.

Smaller but recurrent expenditure lines also feature prominently. At least ₦5.85 billion was earmarked for vehicle purchases, ₦2.93 billion for furnishing and office equipment, ₦29.88 billion for renovation and refurbishment, and ₦25.29 billion for residential and staff accommodation—much of it driven by defence and security agencies.

Analysts say the findings point to a persistent pattern of weak enforcement of budgetary rules. Similar restrictions were issued ahead of the 2025 and 2024 budgets, yet thousands of new projects were later discovered, many of them lacking clear mandates or readiness for execution.

Professor Adeola Adenikinju, President of the Nigerian Economic Society, has previously attributed such lapses partly to late budget presentations, which constrain the National Assembly’s ability to conduct detailed scrutiny. Development economist and CSA Advisory CEO, Dr. Aliyu Ilias, has gone further, describing the trend as evidence of poor fiscal discipline by both the executive and legislature.

According to him, the routine insertion of projects after the President’s budget presentation—often without adequate justification or consultation—has become entrenched. Past analyses by civil society groups such as BudgIT have flagged trillions of naira in questionable projects, including allocations to agencies lacking the legal mandate or capacity to execute them.

Critics warn that these practices, frequently financed through additional borrowing, risk widening Nigeria’s fiscal deficit, inflating the cost of governance and undermining public confidence in the budget as a credible tool for economic planning.

Deadly attacks and hidden bomb networks raise alarm over Nigeria’s fragile security

Suspected bandits have killed a Nigerian soldier and an officer of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) in Benue State, deepening concerns over a renewed surge of violence in the country’s Middle Belt and raising fresh questions about the spillover effects of recent counterterrorism operations elsewhere in Nigeria.

The attack occurred on Saturday in Udeku community, Turan district of Kwande Local Government Area, according to local sources. A community leader, Lawrence Akerigba, said the killings forced residents to flee and brought all economic and social activities in the area to a halt.

The slain officers were part of a security deployment tasked with maintaining order amid repeated attacks attributed to armed herders and bandits in the region.

The incident followed an earlier warning by the Chairman of Agatu Local Government Area, James Ejeh, who said Benue communities were experiencing a renewed wave of violent attacks linked to militants fleeing military pressure in northwestern Nigeria.

In a statement issued Friday, Ejeh alleged that armed groups displaced by recent U.S. airstrikes on Islamic State targets in Sokoto State had infiltrated communities in Agatu and neighbouring areas.

“These armed elements, fleeing from neighbouring areas, have reportedly infiltrated Agatu communities and unleashed unprecedented terror on innocent and defenceless residents,” he said, describing killings, injuries, sexual violence, destruction of homes and farmlands, and mass displacement.

The United States carried out missile strikes on Christmas Day 2025 against suspected Islamic State camps in the Sokoto forest, an operation Nigerian security sources say disrupted militant hideouts and forced fighters to relocate. Benue was among the first states to raise the alarm over the movement of armed groups following the strikes.

Describing the situation as a “grave humanitarian and security crisis,” Ejeh announced the immediate revocation of a 2017 agreement that allowed herders access to Adepati Island for grazing, declaring the arrangement “null and void.”

“Our people are being hunted on their ancestral land without provocation, and this cannot be allowed to continue,” he said, directing armed herders to vacate Agatu land and calling for an urgent reinforcement of military and police presence.

As violence flared in Benue, security agencies in Kano State announced a major counterterrorism breakthrough, uncovering a suspected Improvised Explosive Device (IED) supply cell in the Rijiyar Lemo area of Fagge Local Government.

The operation, carried out on January 10 following actionable intelligence, led to the arrest of two suspects—Maimuna Adam, 24, and Abubakar Mohammed, 27. Security operatives recovered items believed to be used in bomb-making, including 34 bags of electrical cables, a stick of dynamite and quantities of urea fertiliser.

Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) and Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) experts were deployed to secure the area, while investigators began forensic examinations to determine the origin and intended use of the materials.

Security sources said preliminary assessments suggest the cell may be part of a wider network, noting that the combination of recovered items aligns with known IED construction methods used by insurgent and organised criminal groups.

Although Kano has largely avoided major terror attacks in recent years, analysts warn that large cities increasingly serve as logistics and supply hubs for armed groups operating in rural and conflict-prone regions.

Authorities described the raid as a significant pre-emptive success, potentially preventing an attack or the transfer of explosives to other states. However, experts cautioned that the discovery highlights persistent vulnerabilities in monitoring fertiliser, commercial explosives and bulk electrical materials.

Together, the killings in Benue and the discovery of a bomb-making supply cell in Kano underscore Nigeria’s complex and evolving security challenges—where rural bandit violence and urban terror logistics increasingly intersect, stretching already thin security resources.

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