The Community Court of Justice, ECOWAS, dismissed a case filed against the Federal Government of Nigeria regarding the assassination of Mrs. Kudirat Abiola, wife of the winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, M.K.O Abiola.
The suit was filed by three members of the Abiola family, Khalifa Abiola, Moriam Abiola, and Hadi Abiola, who alleged Kudirat’s rights violations and her assassination in 1996 while advocating for her husband’s release from detention.
According to the applicants, the Nigerian government violated Kudirat’s fundamental human rights by neglecting to bring her killers accountable, despite a panel of inquiry naming Sergeant Barnabas Jebila as a main suspect.
In his decision on Friday, the Judge Rapporteur, Justice Edward Amoako Asante, noted that the petitioners lacked the legal ability to sue since they failed to demonstrate a direct contact with Kudirat or present any legal mandate to act on her estate.
In a statement supplied to our correspondent via email, the ECOWAS court rejected Nigeria’s arguments to its jurisdiction, upholding its competence to hear cases involving alleged human rights abuses committed by member states.
However, the court stressed that its role does not include serving as an appellate body for national court decisions.
“The Court also dismissed the objections of the Respondent, Federal Republic of Nigeria, challenging its competence to determine the matter, which it described as beyond the scope of Article 9 of the Protocol of the Court. It equally dismissed the Respondent’s submissions that the Applicants were requesting the Court to determine a case already decided by its national court and that the case had exceeded the time limit allowed for legal action.
“However, the Court noted that the applicants, suing on behalf of themselves and the estate of Mrs. Kudirat Abiola, had not demonstrated legal capacity to sue on behalf of late Mrs. Kudirat Abiola’s estate.
“Consequently, the Court ruled the case as inadmissible for lack of legal capacity of the applicants to sue on behalf of themselves and late Mrs. Kudirat Abiola in this matter.
“The ruling was delivered by a panel of judges, including Hon. Justice Sengu Mohamed Koroma (Presiding), Hon. Justice Gberi-bè Ouattara (Member), and Hon. Justice Edward Amoako Asante (Judge Rapporteur),” the statement stated.
