The ECOWAS Court dismissed an application filed by former National Security Adviser Sambo Dasuki, praying the court would compel Nigeria to enforce its judgment delivered in his favour on October 4, 2016.
In its judgment, the court declared Mr Dasuki’s arrest and detention by the Nigerian government unlawful and a violation of his rights.
Justice Sengu Koroma, the judge rapporteur, while delivering judgment in Abuja on Mr Dasuki’s application for enforcement, dismissed it on the ground that the court lacked jurisdiction to entertain or enforce the earlier judgment.
Mr Koroma said the court was guided by the procedures enshrined in the Community Law regarding the enforcement of its judgments 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.
In the suit marked ECW/CCJ/JUD/23/16, Justice Friday Nwoke 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 held that the government’s action violated Mr Dasuki’s rights under the African Charter of Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR) and the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).
Therefore, it ordered the release of all the applicant’s seized properties and the payment of N15,000,000 in damages.
Following the federal government’s failure to comply with and enforce the judgment, the applicant filed the application before the court for its enforcement.
Earlier at the matter hearing, 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.
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 panel, which comprised Justice Edward Asante (presiding), Mr Koroma (judge rapporteur), and Justice Ricardo Claúdio Gonçalves (member), awarded no costs to parties in the suit.
(NAN)