By Nchetachi Chukwuajah
The Nigerian judiciary attracted attention in the out-gone year 2025 due to major court rulings and convictions.
Across multiple jurisdictions, the courts recorded landmark proceedings, with some high-stakes court cases capturing national attention and shaping public discourse in the year.
The cases ranged from politically charged battles between state and federal authorities to high-profile corruption trials involving former top officials and individuals against the state.
These court rulings established transformative precedents that would shape the future of governance, justice, and the rule of law, and also underscored the critical role of the courts in safeguarding democracy and accountability.
In this article, Impact Nigeria Newspaper highlights some of the major court rulings that dominated public discussions in 2025.
1. Proscription of Lakurawa as a terrorist group
In January 2025, the Federal High Court in Abuja declared the Lakurawa sect a terrorist group, alongside other similar groups operating across parts of Nigeria, particularly in the North-West and North-Central regions.
The sect gained notoriety after launching a series of deadly attacks on communities, particularly in the North-West region of the country in late 2024.
One of the sect’s brutal attacks occurred in November 2024, when gunmen stormed Mera village in Augie LGA of Kebbi State, leaving at least 15 villagers dead.
2. Sunday Jackson’s death sentence
Another major court ruling that gained public attention in 2025 was the Supreme Court’s ruling in March 2025, which upheld the death sentence of Sunday Jackson by the Adamawa High Court.
Jackson, a farmer, was sentenced to death by the High Court in February 2021 over the killing of an attacker on his farm, despite his claim of self-defence.
He was said to be working on his farm on January 27, 2015, when a herder, armed with a knife, attempted to attack him. The herder was reportedly searching for those who killed his cattle.
According to court documents, Jackson was said to have overpowered the attacker, disarmed him, and stabbed his throat thrice.
The Adamawa High Court, while handing the death sentence, held that Jackson had the opportunity to escape rather than stab his attacker.
The judgment was further affirmed by the Court of Appeal in Adamawa in June 2022, which also dismissed Jackson’s claim of self-defence.
The Supreme Court, in March 2025, also upheld the judgement of the high court, a ruling that sparked outrage among Nigerians.
The apex court’s ruling drew criticisms, with many arguing that the apex court failed to see reasons in Jackson’s self-defence argument, and calling for his pardon.
The calls led to Jackson’s pardon by the Adamawa State Governor, Ahmadu Fintiri, who on Tuesday, December 23, 2025, listed him among those granted state pardon in commemoration of Christmas and New Year celebrations.
3. Supreme Court’s ruling on governors’ bid to reclaim N1.8 trillion recovered funds
The Supreme Court, in May 2025, dismissed a suit filed by the 36 state governments and the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) challenging the Federal Government’s management of recovered looted funds.
States had alleged in the suit filed in 2021 that between 2015 and 2021, the Federal Government recovered looted funds amounting to N1.836 trillion alongside 167 properties, 450 cars, 300 trucks and cargoes, and 20 million barrels of crude oil valued at over N450 billion.
The bone of contention was the alleged failure of the Federal Government to remit the recoveries into the Federation Account as required by the constitution.
In its ruling, however, the lead judgment, prepared by Chidiebere Uwa and read by Mohammed Idris, the seven-member panel of the apex court unanimously dismissed the case and held that it lacked jurisdiction to entertain the case.
The court held that the dispute falls within the jurisdiction of the Federal High Court and not the apex court.
4. Court affirmation of FIRS’ power to collect VAT on bolt rides, food deliveries
The July 2025 judgment of the Federal High Court sitting in Lagos, which affirmed the power of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) to collect value-added tax (VAT) on transport and food services provided by independent drivers and vendors operating via platforms like Bolt, also dominated public discourse in 2025.
The judge, Akintayo Aluko, upheld an earlier ruling of the Tax Appeal Tribunal (TAT), which recognised FIRS’ authority to appoint such digital platforms as VAT collection agents.
The operators had in 2022 filed a suit with No. TAT/LZ/VAT/074/2022 at the Tax Appeal Tribunal seeking to restrain the FIRS from imposing the VAT on services rendered via the Bolt platform.
5. Pat Utomi’s shadow government was declared illegal
A Federal High Court in Abuja had, in October 2025, issued an order restraining Pat Utomi, a professor of political economy, and his associates from proceeding with their plan to establish a shadow government in the country.
The suit against Utomi was filed by the Department of State Services (DSS).
In the ruling by the trial judge, James Omotosho, the court held that the concept of a shadow government or cabinet is unconstitutional and alien to the nation’s presidential system of government.
Omotosho ruled that Nigeria’s constitution does not recognise any parallel or alternative government outside the one it provides for, and subsequently declared Utomi’s shadow government as illegal.
6. Nnamdi Kanu’s conviction
Perhaps, one of the cases that generated public attention in 2025 and before was the seven-count terrorism charges brought against the leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, by the Federal Government.
The case reached a crescendo on November 20, 2025, when Kanu was convicted of terrorism by the Federal High Court in Abuja and sentenced to life imprisonment.
The trial judge, James Omotosho, sentenced Kanu to life imprisonment for counts 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6, instead of a death sentence, and sentenced him to 20 years’ imprisonment without fine on count 3, and was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment for count 7.
Omotosho, said the sentences should run concurrently and also ruled that Kanu should not be allowed to use digital devices and be kept in protective custody.
Kanu was thereafter taken to the Sokoto Correctional Centre to serve his sentence following the court’s ruling that he should serve his sentence in any correctional facility other than the Kuje Custodial Centre in Abuja.
The judgment brought to an end Kanu’s criminal trial, which started after his extradition from Kenya to Nigeria in 2021 to face terrorism charges.
7. Supreme Court judgment on Osun LGA funds
The Supreme Court, on December 5, 2025, dismissed the suit filed by the Osun State Attorney-General (AG) and Commissioner for Justice against the Federal Government over withheld local government allocations due to the state since March 2025.
In a 6-1 majority decision among the seven-member panel, the apex court held that the Osun State Attorney-General had no legal standing to institute the suit on behalf of the state’s 30 LGAs.
The court ruled that only duly elected local government chairpersons have the right to sue or be sued directly over the matter.
The Supreme Court, however, held that the Federal Government acted wrongly by withholding the LGAs’ allocations, describing the action “as a grave breach” of the constitution.
The suit followed the local government leadership crisis that arose from the dissolution of the elective local government structures inherited by Governor Ademola Adeleke in 2022 from the immediate past administration of Adegboyega Oyetola.
The Federal Government called for the reinstatement of the sacked local government officials and had seized the local government allocations pending the resolution of the crisis, saying it would only release the funds to elected officials.
8. Supreme Court judgment on Rivers State emergency rule
The Supreme Court’s judgment on the declaration of a state of emergency in Rivers State in March 2025 by President Bola Tinubu was also another major ruling of 2025.
The apex court, on December 15, affirmed the president’s constitutional powers to declare a state of emergency and suspend officials in any part of the country to prevent a breakdown of law and order.
The suit was filed by Adamawa State and 10 other PDP-led states, challenging the legality of the emergency rule.
The judgment came barely three months after the expiration of the six-month emergency rule and reinstatement of Governor Siminalayi Fubara and other suspended elected government officials.
