A Nigerian lawyer has been ordered to personally pay a N50 million cost and faces a potential nationwide ban on appearing in any court after the Supreme Court dismissed as an abuse of process his bid to reopen one of its own decisions.
In a unanimous ruling delivered on May 15 by a five-member panel, the apex court held that the application brought by S.M. Danyaro, counsel to Alhaji Al-Mustapha Haruna Jokolo, was a direct attack on the finality of its judgments. The cost must be paid within 90 days; failure to do so will strip the lawyer of the right of audience in every court in Nigeria.
The motion, filed on October 2, 2025, asked the court to vacate its June 4, 2025 judgment in Suit No. SC/266/2017 (Governor of Kebbi State & 12 Others v. Alhaji Al-Mustapha Haruna Jokolo & Anor). The dispute concerned the Gwandu Emirate Council of Kebbi State. Jokolo alleged that the earlier decision was “procured by fraud” through misrepresentation of Section 4(3) of the Chiefs (Appointment & Deposition) Law of Kebbi State and violated his right to fair hearing. He also sought a fresh panel to rehear the appeal on the merits.
Respondents, represented by Yakubu Maikyau, SAN, argued that the application went far beyond the limited slip-rule provision in Order 20 Rule 4 of the Supreme Court Rules 2024. That rule, they said, permits only correction of clerical mistakes or accidental slips, not a reopening of substantive issues. They cited long-standing authorities confirming that Supreme Court decisions are final and not subject to review.
Justice Jamilu Tukur, who delivered the lead ruling, stressed that Order 20 Rule 4 is a narrow housekeeping tool designed solely to preserve the accuracy of the court’s records. “It is not, and has never been, a gateway for rearguing issues already determined,” he held. The panel described the application as an “affront of the highest order” to the court’s authority and warned against a growing culture of filing untenable applications in the hope of a different outcome.
Justices Uwani Abba-Aji (who led the panel), Ibrahim Saulawa, Emmanuel Agim and Chioma Nwosu-Iheme concurred. The court dismissed the motion as devoid of merit and a gross abuse of process, affirming that the June 2025 judgment remains final, subsisting and binding.
The decision reinforces the principle famously stated by the late Justice Chukwudifu Oputa: the Supreme Court is not final because it is infallible, but infallible because it is final.
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