OPEN LETTER TO NIGERIAN LAWYERS AND NIGERIAN CITIZENS: PRAY THAT YOUR LAWSUIT IS NOT "DELIBERATELY" RE-ASSIGNED TO ONE OF THE "PRE-ARRANGED" JUDGES/JUSTICES OF THE FEDERAL HIGH COURT" WITH A "DIRECTIVE TO DELIVER A PRE-DETERMINED OUTCOME" (A CASE STUDY OF ALDRAP'S BLUE SILKS MATTER)".

"OPEN LETTER TO NIGERIAN LAWYERS AND NIGERIAN CITIZENS: PRAY THAT YOUR LAWSUIT IS NOT "DELIBERATELY" RE-ASSIGNED TO ONE OF THE "PRE-ARRANGED" JUDGES/JUSTICES OF THE FEDERAL HIGH COURT" WITH A "DIRECTIVE TO DELIVER A PRE-DETERMINED OUTCOME" (A CASE STUDY OF ALDRAP'S BLUE SILKS MATTER)".

By

Dr. Tonye Clinton Jaja, SCN, Secretary of ALDRAP.

My dear fellow Nigerian Lawyers and Nigerian lawyers,

When we were growing up, as young children and adolescents, we used to enjoy watching magic shows both on the television and by those local magicians that performed by the roadsides. While the magicians performed their tricks, they always had a Master of Ceremony (MC) whose job was to run non-stop commentary and he would keep repeating the phrase "Come and see American wonder!!!".

I hereby invite you all to "come and follow me and see American wonder that just happened at the Federal High Court Abuja"!!!

Sometime in November 2025, the Incorporated Trustees of the Association of Legislative Drafting and Advocacy Practitioners-ALDRAP filed a lawsuit against the Nigerian Bar Association-NBA.

In the said lawsuit the Association-ALDRAP sought a perpetual injunction against NBA to prevent the NBA from interfering with the Blue Silks awards ceremony of the said Association-NBA.

The NBA never sought any perpetual injunction against the Association-ALDRAP to refrain them from holding the said Blue Silks award.

However, in blatant violation of the Supreme Court of Nigeria judgment that the Nigerian court and its judges are not father Christmas, the trial judge ordered a perpetual injunction against the Blue Silks award ceremony by Association-ALDRAP. This is a violation of the judgment in Odofin vs. Ude (1993) 3 NWLR Pt. 229 page 350.

Another American wonder is that this same lawsuit was originally assigned to Hon. Justice Mohammed Garba Umar of the Federal High Court Abuja as at November 2025 when it was originally filed.

By 27th January 2026, Hon. Justice Mohammed Garba Umar delivered a judgment against the Nigerian Bar Association-NBA in another lawsuit.

By 8fh May 2026, Hon. Justice Binta Nyako also delivered a judgment against the Nigerian Bar Association-NBA and she strictly followed the legal reasoning applied by the judgment of 27th January 2026 as delivered by Hon. Justice Mohammed Garba Umar.

To avoid such pattern, the lawsuit of our Association-ALDRAP was removed from the hands of Hon. Mohammed Garba Umar to whom it was initially assigned in November 2025. It was re-assigned to Hon. Justice James Omotosho at the time it was re-filed on 2nd March 2026. We had to re-file because we changed counsel and the previous counsel made a fundamental flaw in the documents that he filed.

Here is another American wonder that happened in the course of the lawsuit: out of over 100 judges/justices of the Federal High Court who are not currently undergoing the process of elevation to the Court of Appeal, Hon. Justice James Omotosho was the judge/justice that was "assigned" to handle our Association-ALDRAP's re-filed lawsuit.

We re-filed on 2nd March 2026, whereas at that time Hon. Omotosho had already received confirmation that he was one of the 14 judges that was shortlisted out of 42 judges that were screened for elevation to the Court of Appeal.

The ideal thing would have been to re-assign the said lawsuit to either Hon. Justice Mohammed Garba Umar or any other judge who was not in the process of elevation to the Court of Appeal.

Alternatively, Hon. Justice Omotosho ought to have remitted the case file to the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court so that the case would have started afresh (DE-NOVO) under a different judge.

In the year 2022, the Supreme Court of Nigeria laid down the correct procedure when it stated as follows:

"The Supreme Court of Nigeria had on Friday 8/5/2020, declared as nullity the conviction meted out to Orji Uzor Kalu & Ors by Justice Mohammed Idris then of the Federal High Court, on the grounds that the said judgment was delivered in bereft of jurisdiction, since Justice Idris was at the time of the delivery of the said judgement, already elevated to the Court of Appeal. This is regardless of the fact that Justice Idris acted in line with the provisions of Section 396(7) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) 2015.