The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) issued a stern directive to the federal government on December 17, 2025, urging the immediate arrest and trial of known terrorism financiers whose impunity has prolonged banditry, kidnappings, and insurgencies ravaging the nation. NBA President Mazi Afam Osigwe emphasized that legal bottlenecks shielding over 400 suspects arrested during the Buhari era undermine counter-terror efforts, echoing calls from activists like Femi Falana for swift justice under the Administration of Criminal Justice Act.
This ultimatum spotlights systemic delays, with NBA decrying politicized prosecutions that spared high-profile backers while low-level operatives face courts, fueling public outrage amid NLC protests demanding recovery of trillions allegedly diverted via NNPC scams and terror funding networks. Osigwe warned that without targeting enablers from arms suppliers to political patrons insecurity persists despite boosted Federation Account inflows post-subsidy removal.
The legal body's push aligns with constitutional mandates for citizen security, pressing AGF Lateef Fagbemi to activate state Attorneys General empowered since 2016 for federal offences, signaling a unified bar front to restore rule of law and dismantle finance pipelines sustaining groups like Boko Haram and ISWAP.