Nnamdi Kanu’s Conviction: Group Challenges Nigerian Legal Experts With $10,000 Offer

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A United States-based pro-Biafra advocacy group, Rising Sun Foundation USA, has challenged Nigerian legal practitioners to identify any judicial precedent in which an accused person was convicted under a law that had already been repealed.

The challenge follows arguments by the defence team of detained Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) leader, Nnamdi Kanu, that his conviction was based on legislation that was no longer in force.

In a statement signed by its chairman, Dr Maxwell Dede, the group announced a $10,000 reward for anyone who can provide verifiable evidence of a Nigerian court convicting an accused person under a repealed law.

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Nigerian judicial precedent in which a court lawfully entered a conviction founded on a statute that had already been repealed at the time of conviction.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

Giving reasons for the challenge, the activists stated that the Federal High Court in Abuja, presided over by Justice James Omotosho, convicted Kanu on seven counts on November 20, 2025.

“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central issue is that the conviction was founded on the Terrorism (Prevention) (Amendment) Act 2013—a law that had been repealed before the judgment was delivered.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 A repealed statute is not a written law in force,” the statement said.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 group further maintained that the Supreme Court of Nigeria had previously made pronouncements affirming that a person cannot lawfully be convicted under legislation that is no longer in force.

Citing a judicial decision in support of its position, 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 argued that if no qualifying precedent could be produced, it would raise further questions about the legal validity of Kanu’s conviction.

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.”

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