The ECOWAS Community Court of Justice on February 28 , 2025, delivered its ruling in a case concerning Khalifa Abiola and two others and the federal government of Nigeria over alleged claims of human rights violations involving late Mrs Kudirat Abiola.
In its Ruling read by Hon Justice Edward Amoako Asante, Judge Rapporteur, the Court declared the case inadmissible on the grounds that the Applicants lacked the capacity to sue in this case as they neither established evidence of direct relationship with late Mrs Kudirat Abiola nor presented any legal mandate to sue as indirect victims on behalf of her estate.
The Court, according to a statement issued by its communication division, 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.
The case filed under suit number ECW/CCJ/APP/62/22 was brought before the Court by the Applicants— Khalifa Abiola, Moriam Abiola and Hadi Abiola— suing on behalf of themselves and the estate of late Mrs Kudirat Abiola whom they alleged to have been assassinated by some gunmen in Nigeria.
The Applicants claimed that late Mrs Kudirat Abiola was a wife of Nigerian politician and statesman Chief MKO Abiola, who won the June 1993 presidential election in Nigeria but was barred from assuming office by the military junta led by Gen. Ibrahim Babangida. They contended that Chief Abiola was instead arrested and charged with treasonable felony and imprisoned without trial in solitary confinement.
They told the Court that Mrs Abiola led a campaign for her husband’s release but was assassinated in June 1996. They argued that the Nigerian government’s failure to hold accountable those responsible for her assassination including one Sergent Barnabas Jebila as identified in the findings of a Commission of Inquiry, violated the fundamental human rights of the late Mrs Abiola as guaranteed by the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
On their part, the Nigerian government raised objections in which it challenged the jurisdiction of the Court and the admissibility of the matter before the Court.
In its analysis, the Court noted that the case was within its scope of competence as it pertains to alleged human rights violations by the Respondent for failing to discharge its continuing obligation to hold the perpetrators of Mrs Abiola’s murder accountable.
On the issue of the Court sitting on appeal on an already decided case by a national court, the Court clarified that its mandate does not involve acting as an appellate forum over national courts but rather assessing the compliance of Member States with international human rights standards. It recalled its Ruling ECW/CCJ/RUL/05/24 where it stated that “the Court would only be acting as an appellate forum over national courts if it were to review or rehear national court decisions, including by interpreting or applying the national laws on which those decisions were based, and issue orders to directly reverse or vary such national court judgments,” In the present case, it observed there was no request to rehear, review or re-examine any decision of Nigeria’s domestic courts.
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 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 comprising Hon Justice Sengu Mohamed Koroma (Presiding), Hon Justice Gberi-bè Ouattara, (Member) and Hon Justice Edward Amoako Asante (Judge Rapporteur) the statement said.
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