The ECOWAS Court on Monday set aside an application filed by the former National Security Adviser, retired Col. Sambo Dasuki, who approached the court to order the Nigerian government to enforce a previous judgment delivered in his favour.
Recall that Dasuki, a former NSA under President Goodluck Jonathan, dragged the Federal Government before the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, where he claimed that his life was in danger.
Dasuki claimed that he had been kept under house arrest by armed operatives of the Department of State Services.
In a fundamental rights enforcement suit he filed against the Federal Government, Dasuki pleaded with the court to uphold his rights to dignity and security of life as the DSS operatives laid siege to his house and prevented him from travelling abroad for medical treatment.
Dasuki filed the same suit at the ECOWAS court where he obtained a favourable judgment delivered on October 4, 2016, ordering his release from illegal custody.
In a suit marked: ECW/CCJ/JUD/23/16, Justice Friday Nwoke, declared the government’s action against 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 Dasuki’s arrest and detention by the Nigerian government was unlawful and a violation of his rights.
The court further held that the government’s action violated Dasuki’s rights under the African Charter of Human and People’s Rights and the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights.
It, therefore, ordered the release of all the seized properties of Dasuki, as well as a payment of N15,000,000 in damages to the applicant.
The Federal Government however failed to comply with the judgment and refused to enforce the said judgment.
This led Dasuki to file an application before the court asking for its enforcement.
The federal government on its part, during the trial, denied Dasuki’s allegations, stressing that the properties being claimed by 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.
Delivering judgment in his application for enforcement of fundamental rights, today in Abuja, Justice Sengu Koroma, the Judge Rapporteur, dismissed it on the ground that the court lacked jurisdiction to entertain or enforce the earlier judgment.
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.
The panel, which comprised Justice Edward Asante, Justice Sengu Koroma and Justice Ricardo Claúdio Gonçalves awarded no costs to parties in the suit.
