The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Community Court of Justice has found the Federal Government of Nigeria guilty of human rights abuses during the #EndSARS protest in October 2020.
The court in a unanimous decision by a three-man panel of Justices, ruled on Wednesday, that the government’s response to the protests, particularly the disproportionate use of force at the Lekki Toll Gate in Lagos, violated several international human rights standards.
The applicants, Obianuju Catherine Udeh, Perpetual Kamsi, and Dabiraoluwa Adeyinka, had sued the Federal Government at the ECOWAS Court for justice on October 21, 2021, seeking enforcement of their fundamental rights.
The applicants alleged through their lawyers, Bolaji Gabari, Mojirayo Ogunlana-Nkanga, Gaye Sowe, and Nelson Olanipekun, that their rights to life, security of person, freedom of expression, assembly, and association, prohibition of torture, duty of the state to investigate, and the right to effective remedy, were violated during the peaceful protests at the Lekki Toll Gate in Lagos State on October 20 and 21, 2020.
The suit read: “Three Applicants who witnessed and were victims of the military and police onslaught that occurred in the event popularly known as #EndSARS protests which took place on the 20th of October 2020 at Lekki Tollgate have filed an action before the ECOWAS Court seeking the enforcement of their fundamental rights.
“The Applicants, who continue to suffer untold psychological and mental trauma and threat to life, from that day, have approached the ECOWAS Court, known for its neutrality and adherence to international standards in adjudicating cases, to consider and hold that the rights of the Applicants and other peaceful protesters have been grossly violated by the Nigerian State and its agencies.
“The Applicants seek amongst others, the declaration that the Nigerian State has violated her obligations under the Nigerian Constitution, International laws and most especially the African Charter; failed and fails to protect the lives of the Applicants and citizens; protect its citizens from extra-judicial killings, police brutality and to promote and provide security for its citizens; that the State persistently tolerates and promotes a climate of impunity in the country as a result of its systemic failure to condemn, effectively identify and secure accountability for a series of grave attacks against the Applicants and people of Nigeria and failure to convict perpetrators of human rights violations in the years preceding the 20th and 21st of October 2020 Lekki Tollgate Shooting and till date.”
The regional court, in its lead judgement that was delivered by the Judge Rapporteur, Justice Koroma Mohamed Sengu, held that the Federal Republic of Nigeria, through its security agencies, violated Articles 1, 4, 6, 9, 10, and 11 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACPHR).
The court ordered the Federal Government to investigate and prosecute security agents responsible for the violations and to report to the court within six months, measures taken to implement the judgment.
It also ordered the federal government to pay N2m in compensation to each victim named in the suit.
Other members of the panel that concurred with the lead judgement, were Justice Dupe Atoki who presided, and Justice Ricardo Claúdio Monteiro Gonçalves.
ENDSARS: ECOWAS Court Fines Nigerian Government For Human Rights Abuse is first published on The Whistler Newspaper