By Dayo Adesulu
Setting:
Federal High Court, Abuja – Morning of 23 October 2025.
A thick, uneasy silence. Security men everywhere. The press is restricted. The Nigerian coat of arms glimmers behind the judge’s bench.
Characters:
Justice Omotola – Presiding Judge, cautious and weary.
Barrister Eze – Defense Counsel, fiery but restrained.
Mazi Kene Opara – Political prisoner and activist (fictionalized reflection of Nnamdi Kanu).
Mr. Osho – Government Prosecutor.
DSS Officer – silent presence, symbol of state power.
Court Clerk, Journalists, and Spectators.
—
SCENE ONE – THE REPEALED LAW
(Gavel hits. The courtroom rises.)
CLERK: Case of the Federal Republic versus Kene Opara.
JUDGE OMOTOLA: Appearances?
EZE: My Lord, Barrister Eze for the defendant.
OSHO: Osho, for the prosecution.
(Judge nods. Opara stands, calm but visibly gaunt.)
EZE: My Lord, before this court proceeds, I must raise a preliminary objection. The charge before you is founded on the Terrorism Prevention Amendment Act 2013 — a law long repealed. The 2022 Act replaced it. You cannot try a man under a dead law.
OSHO: My Lord, this is an attempt to derail the proceedings.
EZE: To ask whether a court has jurisdiction is not derailing; it is defining the road.
JUDGE OMOTOLA: The court will take that objection after the trial.
EZE (stunned): After the trial? My Lord, jurisdiction is the soul of a case. Without it, even judgment is a ghost!
KENE (rising): My Lord, I will not be tried under a repealed law. If justice is dead, then bury it — but do not make me its coffin.
(Murmurs fill the courtroom. The judge bangs the gavel.)
JUDGE OMOTOLA: Sit down, Mr. Opara!
SCENE TWO – CONTEMPT OF JUSTICE
EZE: My Lord, the appellate court discharged my client three years ago. The Supreme Court never reversed that discharge — it only said the government may refile charges if it wishes. It never said to keep him in custody.
OSHO: The government is acting within its powers.
EZE: Then why is he still detained without a new warrant? My Lord, the DSS is in contempt of court. The law is clear: a party in contempt has no right to be heard until the contempt is purged. Hadkinson v. Hadkinson (1952) says it all.
JUDGE OMOTOLA: Counsel, do not teach me law.
EZE: Then apply it, My Lord.
(Tension. The judge glares. Opara folds his arms quietly.)
KENE: My Lord, if the court cannot defend its own judgment, who will defend the people?
SCENE THREE – THE WATCHED LAWYER
EZE: My Lord, my client cannot even consult me privately. Every discussion we have is recorded by the DSS. That violates Section 36 — the right to confidential counsel.
JUDGE OMOTOLA: Your fair hearing will come when you call your witnesses.
EZE: My Lord, fair hearing begins with freedom to speak to one’s lawyer — not with cross-examination in captivity!
KENE (bitterly): They fear even our whispers. That is not justice, that is surveillance.
(The DSS Officer shifts uncomfortably.)
SCENE FOUR – THE FORGED REPORT
EZE: My Lord, the medical report presented by the DSS is forged.
JUDGE OMOTOLA: Counsel, that report was once accepted by your predecessor, Chief Agabi, SAN.
EZE: Acceptance of a lie does not make it truth. My Lord, forgery cannot be baptized by procedure.
KENE (calmly): My Lord, I would rather die standing in truth than live kneeling under forgery.
(A long silence. Even the journalists lower their pens.)
SCENE FIVE – THE VERDICT OF FEAR
JUDGE OMOTOLA (softly): This court is not here to debate the wisdom of the government.
EZE: Then what are we doing here, My Lord? Acting a script?
KENE: This is not a trial. It is theatre. And the costume is justice.
(The courtroom trembles in silence. The judge looks exhausted, broken.)
JUDGE OMOTOLA: The matter is adjourned. Indefinitely.
(Gasps. Barrister Eze drops his file. Kene smiles faintly.)
KENE: Even silence has a verdict.
(The gavel falls. Blackout.)
EPILOGUE
Voice-over (Journalist):
October 23, 2025 — another date in Nigeria’s endless calendar of postponed justice.
A man discharged three years ago still sits in detention.
A repealed law still breathes.
A court still pretends not to see.
In this country, they don’t kill justice with guns — they adjourn it to death.
(Screen fades to black.)
Text appears:
🕯️ “You cannot break the law and then ask the law to protect you.”
