The ECOWAS Court has dismissed an application filed by former National Security Adviser Sambo Dasuki seeking an order compelling the Nigerian government to enforce its judgment delivered in his favour on 4 October 2016.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the court had in the judgement declared Mr Dasuki’s arrest and detention by the Nigerian government unlawful and a violation of his rights.
The judge rapporteur, Sengu Koroma, while delivering judgment in Abuja on Mr Dasuki’s application for enforcement, dismissed it on the grounds that the court lacked jurisdiction to entertain or enforce the earlier judgment.
Mr Koroma said the court was guided by laid down procedures regarding the enforcement of its judgments as enshrined in the Community Law, and the proper party to institute an enforcement failure claim.
“Having thoroughly assessed the claims and constitutive texts of the Court, it lacks the competence to adjudicate the present claim,” the court said.
NAN reports that the judge, Friday Nwoke, had in the suit marked: ECW/CCJ/JUD/23/16, declared the government’s action against Mr Dasuki as “arbitrary, unlawful, a mockery of democracy and the rule of law, and a violation of local and international rights to liberty.”
The court further held that the government’s action violated Dasuki’s rights under the African Charter of Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR) and the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).
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It, therefore, ordered the release of all the seized properties and payment of N15 million damages to him.
Following the federal government’s failure to comply with and enforce the said judgement, the applicant, therefore, filed the application before the court for its enforcement.
Earlier at the hearing of the matter, the federal government denied the applicant’s allegations, stressing that the properties being claimed by Mr Dasuki were subjects of ongoing criminal proceedings, which he did not disclose in the suit.
READ ALSO: Nigerian govt seeks review of ECOWAS Court procedure
The respondent’s counsel had argued that the government had already fulfilled its obligations, adding that the court’s chief registrar had issued a writ of execution, making the relief prayed for by the applicant unnecessary.
The court’s panel, comprising Edward Asante (presiding), Sengu Koroma (judge rapporteur) and Ricardo Claúdio Gonçalves (member), awarded no costs to parties in the suit.
(NAN)
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