Supreme Court’s Death Sentence of Sunday Jackson in Adamawa: Is there Anything Supreme About the Judgment? -By Uzoma Ahamefule

Apart from the explanation of bad leadership, Nigeria is a country that is very difficult to understand and to explain what happens around it correctly – economically, socially, politically and legally. And anyone who claims to understand it differently has a problem or is part of the problem.

The Supreme Court judgment that upheld the death sentence of Sunday Jackson in Adamawa State was definitely a miscarriage of justice that should not be allowed to happen. The verdict is a pill too big to swallow, and its implication too huge in Nigeria and on Nigerians.

For those that may not know what happened, Sunday Jackson was reportedly said to be working in his farm when Mr. Ardo Bawuro, an alleged Fulani herdsman, came and attacked him with a knife. Sunday was said to have been stabbed two times by Bawuro, but he luckily overpowered him, and in self-defense he stabbed him too which led to his death. For this reason, Sunday was arraigned in court in November 2018, sentenced to death by hanging by the High Court, upheld by the Court of appeal and stamped finally by the Supreme Court in April 2025.

One does not need to be a lawyer here to understand that Sunday only tried to defend himself. In this circumstance, the worst scenario Sunday could have been charged should have been manslaughter because all he did was in self-defense. Even though it would still have been also very difficult to justify or for many to accept such harsh charge, but to stamp the death of a young man who only tried to defend himself against his attacker is something that is not acceptable under any circumstance and should not be tolerated. The dreaded implication of this judgment is that no one is encouraged to defend him/herself properly from any assailant especially a herder, and anyone who does faces the same fate like Sunday Jackson.

Why should a bunch of such traitors and violators of every known international immigration and migrant laws be tolerated and pampered by anyone? Why cannot they be called by the name their actions represent and be treated as such?

I thought judiciary is the last hope of a common man. Where is the hope of Sunday here? Is there anything really supreme in this Supreme Court judgment? Was the judgment truly fair? Please, we must not allow Sunday Jackson to be hanged. Every activist around the globe and every reasonable Nigerian irrespective of political affiliation, tribe and religion must stand up now and appeal to Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri, the governor of Adamawa State to pardon Sunday. This is the only option left to save his life if the case cannot be reviewed anymore.

As a matter of fact and in solidarity to Sunday Jackson, let me officially appeal to His Excellency, Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri, the executive governor of Adamawa State to please apply his executive power and save the life of Sunday by giving him clemency. He deserves not to die, and his life is now in your hands.

Let me also use the opportunity to equally appeal to Atiku Abubakar, the Waziri of Adamawa, for his intervention. Waziri Sir, you are not the governor of Adamawa State, but you are an influential figure in Adamawa and Fintiri is a member of your political party. Sir, kindly lend your voice here on behalf of Sunday.

Nigerians have lived together with herders for decades, and owing to herders’ callousness and awkward behaviors, the conflicts between them and farmers are not something new to us. But we have at least managed the situation reasonably well until Buhari came to power in 2015 and everything went out of control. Under Buhari herders in many other African countries were encouraged to come to Nigeria, and that brought in bunches of rapists, arsonists and suspected terrorists under the guise of herders. We have also not forgotten how his administration tried to desperately force the Rural Grazing Area (RUGA), an archaic policy on Nigerians that was vehemently rejected. But he was bent in the implementation of that policy and did not give up the idea despite the public outcry. Instead of accepting the rejection of RUGA, he rather re-strategized, retracted the name RUGA, repackaged it with another name and brought it back to Nigerians under National Livestock Transformation plan (NLTP). Buhari left nothing to Nigerians than sorrow, agony and regrets. His administration was a disaster that either laid many foundations of our grief today or that took them from bad to worse.

Nigerian leaders most times behave like people under a spell when it comes to issues of killings, kidnappings and destructions of properties by the rampaging, illegally armed and dangerous herders. In all sense of sincerity; why should any reasonable leader under normal circumstances accommodate a group of people who came into his/her territorial zone without following any due process? These bunches of criminals do not go to rent houses or apartments to live wherever they go to, rather they head straight to bushes or forests where they illegally build huts as haven, and start planning and executing their nefarious activities of arson, raping, killing and terrorism etc. Ancestral owners of the land dare not ask questions, and anyone who does gets killed, and there is no consequence.

Nigerian people seem to be rapidly losing hope and trust in their judiciary. Many are of the opinion that if one is not influential and does not have enough money one will not get fair judgments alleging that the highest bidder and the one with better connections takes it all. Could these perceptions by many perhaps be enough credible evidence to the allegations that the judiciary has been politicized? Are the Supreme Court judges not fallible? Until judges begin to lose their licenses based on baseless and established fraudulent judgments, the hope of a turn around in Nigerian judicial system is still very far. And trust of judiciary of any country is one of the cardinal points of economical growth, because it encourages both local and foreign investments.

Please His Excellency Sir, Sunday Jackson must not be hanged.

Uzoma Ahamefule, a concerned patriotic citizen and a refined African traditionalist, writes from Vienna, Austria.
uzomaah@yahoo.com
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