The complaint against FG over Kudirat is dismissed by the ECOWAS Court. The action against the Federal Government for the 1993 presidential election assassination of Chief MKO Abiola’s wife, Mrs. Kudirat, was dismissed by the Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African States, or ECOWAS, on Friday. Murder
The late Kudirat was the wife of Chief Abiola, a Nigerian politician and statesman who won the country’s June 1993 presidential election but was prevented from taking office by the military dictatorship headed by General Ibrahim Babangida, the applicants informed the court.
Instead, they said, Chief Abiola was taken into custody, charged with treason, and placed in solitary confinement without being given a chance to defend himself.
The applicants claim that the late Kudirat spearheaded an effort to secure her husband’s release before being slain in June 1996.
They claimed that the Nigerian government had violated the late Mrs. Abiola’s fundamental human rights by failing to hold those liable for her murder, notably one Sergent Barnabas Jebila, as revealed by the results of a Commission of Inquiry.
But in its ruling on Friday, the regional court dismissed the suit on the grounds that the applicants had not presented any evidence of a direct relationship with the late Mrs. Abiola, nor had they presented any legal document requiring them to sue as indirect victims on behalf of Abiola’s estate. The court concluded that, given the evidence, it was unable to determine the applicants’ locus standi, or legal capacity, to bring the action against the Nigerian government. The court also rejected the respondent, the Federal Republic of Nigeria, contesting its authority to decide the case, describing it as being outside the purview of Article 9 of the Court’s Protocol.
It also rejected the Respondent’s arguments that the case had passed the statute of limitations for legal action and that the Applicants were asking the Court to rule on a matter that had previously been settled by its national court.
Similarly, FG submitted an objection to the ECOWAs court, contesting both the admissibility of the matter before the court and its jurisdiction to hear the case. The court rejected the objection.
According to the Court’s interpretation, the case fell within its purview because it concerned claimed human rights abuses by the Respondent for not fulfilling its ongoing duty to hold the murderers of Mrs. Abiola accountable.
Regarding FG’s argument that it was sitting on appeal over a case that had already been decided by a Nigerian court, the regional court explained that its purpose is to evaluate Member States’ adherence to international human rights standards, not to serve as an appellate forum over national courts.
“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,” the court recalled in a case marked ECW/CCJ/RUL/05/24.
It concluded that no request to rehear, review, or reexamine any Nigerian domestic court ruling had been made in the Abiola case.
The Court did observe, however, that the applicants, who were suing on behalf of both their own and Mrs. Kudirat Abiola’s estate, lacked the legal competence to do so.
Because the applicants lacked the legal power to bring a lawsuit on behalf of themselves and the late Mrs. Kudirat Abiola, it was decided that the case was inadmissible.
The panel of judges who gave the ruling included Hon. Justice Edward Amoako Asante (Judge Rapporteur), Hon. Justice Sengu Mohamed Koroma (Presiding), and Hon. Justice Gberi-bè Ouattara (Member).