We can hear Dasuki’s case – ECOWAS Court

The Economic Community of West African
States (ECOWAS) Court of Justice
yesterday said it has jurisdiction to hear a
case filed by the former National Security
Adviser (NSA), retired Colonel Mohammed
Sambo Dasuki, against the federal
government over his continued detention
without trial since December 2015.
Delivering the ruling, the ECOWAS Court
dismissed the objection of the
government against Dusuki’s suit on the
grounds that the objection was misplaced,
misconceived, frivolous and lacked merit.
Justice Friday Chijoke Nwoke, who read
the decision of the three-member panel,
held that government’s claim that Dasuki’s
case emanated from his trial on certain
offences was inappropriate and being a
basis for its objection to the applicant’s
case in this matter could not hold since the
reliefs sought by Dasuki had nothing to do
with the ongoing trial at the domestic
courts in Nigeria.
 Justice Nwoke held further that the case
of the government could not stand in the
face of the law because there was no
evidence that Dasuki had filed a similar
pending case in any international court
and that even if he had up to the Supreme
Court, such domestic courts could not
have the status of an international court
as envisaged in the treaty to which Nigeria
is a signatory.
Dasuki had through his lawyers, Mr Robert
Emukpoeruo and Wale Balogun, sued the
federal government at the ECOWAS Court
to complain that the invasion of his house
in Abuja, Kaduna and Sokoto last year
without any court order or warrant of
arrest and seizure of his properties
comprising vehicles, money and
documents constituted abuse of his rights
to liberty as enshrined in Section 36 and
34 of the 1999 constitution and other
international laws. Definite hearing on the
case was fixed for May 17 and 18, 2016.