Justice Nwosu-Iheme: Counsel’s application was “thoughtless, juvenile” abuse of court process
The Supreme Court of Nigeria has imposed a personal fine of N50 million on lawyer S.M. Danyaro and stripped him of his right of audience in any Nigerian court, following what the apex court described as a vexatious and abusive application filed after a substantive appeal had already been decided.
In a ruling signed on June 22, 2026, Justice Chioma Egondu Nwosu-Iheme condemned Danyaro’s conduct as professional misconduct, aligning fully with the lead ruling delivered by Justice Jamilu Yammama Tukur. She did not mince words on the quality of the application before her.
“This Application is one of the most thoughtless and irresponsible Applications ever brought before this Court,” she said, endorsing the lead ruling’s conclusion.
The court found that Danyaro had brought the application solely to air his frustration over the outcome of an earlier appeal, which the Supreme Court had decided on June 4, 2025. Justice Nwosu-Iheme said the move amounted to a serious breach of professional conduct.
“It is condemnable as it amounts to Professional Misconduct on the part of counsel for the Applicant,” she ruled, adding that the episode “will haunt the said Counsel for the rest of his career as a Legal Practitioner.”
In some of the most pointed language to come out of the apex court in recent memory, the justice accused Danyaro of exposing his own ignorance of the law and embarrassing himself before Nigeria’s highest court.
“He is not worthy to be called a Legal Practitioner,” she declared, describing the application as “thoughtless, Juvenile and Gross abuse of the process of this Court.”
The court reaffirmed that its June 4, 2025 judgment in Appeal No. SC.266/2017 remains valid, final, and binding on all parties, and dismissed Danyaro’s application in its entirety, calling it “bereft of Common Sense.”
Beyond the dismissal, the court handed down stiff personal sanctions. Danyaro was ordered to pay N50 million in costs directly to the respondents within 90 days, and barred from appearing in any Nigerian court until he files a certificate of compliance under Order 12 Rules 4(d), 6, and 7 of the Supreme Court Rules.
“S.M. Danyaro of Counsel shall cease to have right of audience in any Court in Nigeria until there is evidence of Compliance,” the ruling stated.
The ruling was signed by Justice Chioma Egondu Nwosu-Iheme and certified as a true copy by the Registrar of the Supreme Court.
