ECOWAS Court Awards N15m Damages to Dasuki over Unlawful Detention

Reprieve came on Tuesday for detained former Na­tional Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd), as the Economic Community of West African State (ECOWAS) Court in Abuja, ordered the Federal Government to release him.
The court also awarded him N15 million as damages for il­legal incarceration by the gov­ernment.
The regional court held that the detention of Dasuki violat­ed both national and interna­tional laws on the rights of per­sons and citizens to freedom of liberty.
In the decision of the court delivered by Justice Friday Chi­jioke Nwoke, the ECOWAS Court imposed a fine of N15 million against Nigeria as com­pensatory damages to Dasuki for the deprivation of his free­dom to liberty and property.

The regional court dis­missed the allegations of un­lawful possession of firearms and economic crimes used by the Federal Government to jus­tify the detention of Dasuki.
Justice Nwoke said that even if the applicant had committed a crime, the law still has it that due process of the law must be fol­lowed in his trial, adding that it is an established fact that the ap­plicant was put on trial in three different Nigerian High Courts and was granted bails by the courts.
The court said that the ac­tion of the Nigerian govern­ment in subjecting the former NSA to the indefinite detention without trial is condemnable be­cause criminality had not been established against him.
According to the court, de­tention order must be made in writing and must be delivered to the detainees, adding that in the instant case, none of such was obtained and delivered to Das­uki by the Federal Government before arresting and execut­ing and forcefully taking away properties of the applicant in his houses in Abuja and Sokoto.
The court also dismissed the claim of the Federal Govern­ment that Dasuki was arrested and detained in his own inter­est, adding that the claim was an assault to the Nigerian Consti­tution and other international laws because there was no iota of evidence placed before the court that the applicant applied for security protection.
“Having perused the case before us, we have come to the conclusion that the re-arrest and detention of the applicant after he had been granted bail by three courts since December last year makes mockery of the rule of law. The Executive arm should not interfere with the Ju­diciary”.
“Even if the applicant has committed crimes of whatever nature, the principle of inno­cence must be respected and the fact that he has been charged to court does not disentitled him to freedom of liberty… Court must rise to their responsibili­ties and prevent executive law­lessness.
“It is the applicant today; it could be anybody tomorrow. There is no legal basis for the re-arrest of the applicant oth­er than to circumvent the bails granted by the courts.
“We have no difficulty in coming to the conclusion that the purported search warrant claimed to have been obtained by the Nigerian government was an afterthought aimed at perverting the course of justice because the so-called search warrant was not certified and to worsen the case, the defendant claimed that it could not serve the same search warrant on the applicant”
“For the avoidance of doubt, anybody who commits crimes must be put on trial before an appropriate court but in doing so, the state must respect local and international laws in the prosecution of such persons,” the court said.