Nigeria Case Law

What happens when you lose at the Supreme Court of Nigeria — the very last stop in the country's judicial system — and you still don't want to accept it? One counsel found out the hard way, in a ruling so scathing that two justices, in near-identical language, essentially told him he had disgraced his own profession. And it came with a personal costs order of ₦50,000,000. The Facts This case is the direct sequel to the deposed Emir of Gwandu's chieftaincy battle (reported separately as Governor, Kebbi State v. Jokolo (2026) 12 NWLR (Pt. 2054) 191). In that earlier judgment, delivered in June 2025, the Supreme Court split 3-2 and ruled against the former emir, ending years of litigation over his 2005 removal from the Gwandu stool. Rather than accept that outcome, the former emir's legal team filed a fresh application — this time asking the Supreme Court to review and set aside its own decision. The grounds were dramatic: that the winning side had fraudulently misrepresen...