On Sunday, November 23 2025, a post claiming that Justice James Omotosho survived an assassination attempt surfaced on social media sparking huge controversy.
The Claim
The claim, shared by Progressive Nigerian Politics, a Facebook page with 115k followers read: “BREAKING: Justice James Omotosho of the Federal High Court in Abuja has reportedly survived an assassination attempt early this morning, just days after handing down the life-sentence to Nnamdi Kanu. He was immediately rushed to a hospital as security forces scrambled to secure the area.
A source said, “This is an outrage. A judge cannot be silenced for simply doing his job”.
Another insider added, “If justice is under attack, then the very foundation of law is being threatened”.
“This alleged attack comes amid growing tensions since the conviction. For now, details remain murky — authorities are yet to confirm who is behind the attempt or whether any assailants have been apprehended.”
The user also attached several photos of a car with gunshot marks, claiming it belonged to the judge.
Screenshot from Facebook
As at the time of this fact-check, the post by Progressive Nigerian Politics has gained 660 likes, 708 comments, and 166 shares.
In no time, this claim went viral and was posted by many blogs and pages.
The claim was also posted here, here, here, here, here, here, and here, to mention a few.
The virality of this post and the weight of the controversy that accompanies such a claim is what prompted this fact-check.
Verification
In the post shared by Progressive Nigerian Politics and other blogs, there is no video or picture evidence showing the attack or its aftermath. No image of the judge being rushed to the hospital or at the hospital.
First, we searched for the judge’s social media handles on Facebook and X to check if Omotosho had reported such an incident.
We found that the judge had no social media account(s) existing on these platforms.
Screenshot from Facebook
We decided to visit Google, the number one search engine. We combined the keywords; ‘James Omotosho Assassination’ for our search query.
We found that no reputable media website published the report as claimed by Progressive Nigerian Politics and other social media bloggers.
In the course of our investigation, we found that the Federal High Court had denied claims of the assassination attempt on the judge.
The court, in a disclaimer that was issued by its Chief Registrar, Sulaiman Amida Hassan, blamed the fake news on a publication it said originated from a blogger, even as it urged the public to refrain from further disseminating it to prevent the spread of misinformation.
This report was published by several reputable media outlets.
Screenshot from Google
You will find the report here, here, here, here, and here.
To further strengthen our conclusion, we visited YouTube.
Again, we did not find any video to back the claim.
Also, no reputable media source posted such information on their YT page.
Screenshot from YouTube
Conclusion
After thorough investigation, we can conclude that the claim of an assassination attempt on Justice James Omotosho is false and misleading.
The post was published to mislead the public, spark controversy, and increase engagement.
Verification Tools
YouTube
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