ECOWAS court refuses to declare Dasuki’s detention illegal

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) court of justice has dismissed an application filed by Sambo Dasuki, former national security adviser, praying the court to compel Nigeria to enforce a judgment declaring his detention unlawful and a violation of his rights.

Delivering judgement on the application in Abuja, Sengu Koroma, the judge rapporteur, dismissed it on grounds 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.

BACKGROUND

Dasuki had filed an application before the court for the enforcement of a suit marked ECW/CCJ/JUD/23/16, where he said Friday Nwoke, the presiding judge, had declared the government’s action against him as “arbitrary, unlawful, a mockery of democracy and the rule of law, and a violation of local and international rights to liberty“.

The former NSA said the court had 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).

He said the court also ordered the release of all the seized properties of the applicant, as well as the payment of N15,000,000 damages to him.

Dasuki said the federal government had failed to comply with the judgement.

But earlier at the hearing of the matter, the federal government denied the applicant’s allegations, saying the properties being claimed by Dasuki were subjects of ongoing criminal proceedings, which he did not disclose in the suit.

The FG’s counsel had argued that the government had already fulfilled its obligations.

The counsel added that the court’s chief registrar had issued a writ of execution, making the relief prayed for by the applicant unnecessary.