Ariwoola: ECOWAS judicial council has set up committees to address unenforceable judgements

Olukayode Ariwoola, chief justice of Nigeria (CJN), says the judicial council of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has set up committees to look into the judgments by the court of justice of the regional bloc.

On Tuesday, Lateef Fagbemi, attorney-general of the federation (AGF) and minister of justice, said it was important for the ECOWAS court to pay attention to the peculiarities of member states.

Fagbemi described some of the judgments delivered by the ECOWAS court as “practically incapable of enforcement”.

Speaking with journalists on Thursday after leading members of the ECOWAS judicial council to meet with President Bola Tinubu at the State House, the CJN said two committees have been established to examine rules and execution of the regional bloc’s court judgements.

“Attorney-general of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Prince Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), gave that as part of his pitch at the opening session on Tuesday and that is part of my remarks to Mr President this morning, that the issue on the enforcement of the judgments of the community court is going to be looked into,” Ariwoola said.

“We have set up two committees; one to look into the rules and the other to look into the position or the status of the enforcement of judgments of the community court and as I told Mr President, by the time the council concludes its meeting, the recommendations will show that we have worked so hard to support the commission.”

Members of the ECOWAS judicial council have been meeting in Abuja since Tuesday and are expected to submit their recommendations to the authorities.

The CJN said as the chairman of the ECOWAS judicial council he led members to visit the president to brief him on what transpired during the meeting.

“The council has been having its meeting at the council hall of the national judicial council since Tuesday and that’s why we planned to visit Mr President, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, and we were granted the honour to make this visit to appraise his excellency about what transpired at our meeting,” he said. 

“We planned to submit our recommendations to the authority when we conclude our meeting. It has been wonderful.”