The ECOWAS Court of Justice has dismissed an application filed by the Federal Republic of Nigeria for a review of the court’s November 18, 2020 judgment in which it awarded N20 million to two former death row inmates for the treatment meted out to them in prison.
The court had, in the 2020 verdict, upheld a fundamental rights enforcement application by the death row inmates – Abu Dennis Uluebeka and Mary Bahago – and awarded each of them N10 million for the violation of their human rights as a result of the inhuman treatment they suffered while in custody at the Kirikiri Maximum Security Prison in Lagos State and the Suleja Prison in Niger State.
Abu Dennis was released in May 2019 from custody due to old age, after fulfilling the conditions necessary for his release; Bahago, whose death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment, remains in the Suleja Prison.
Shortly after the judgment was issued last year, the Nigerian government applied to the court for a review of its decision, arguing that there were new facts on which the court could reverse itself.
In a judgment on Tuesday, the ECOWAS Court, currently sitting in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, held that it could not entertain the Nigerian application.
A statement by the court said Justice Januária Costa, who read the judgment, averred that the Nigerian application was inadmissible because of the country’s inability to disclose any new fact to the court, in accordance with its Rules.
The panel of three judges, led by Justice Dupe Atoki, also held that what the Nigerian government relied on as a new fact seemed to be an ordinary appeal, which cannot be brought to the court, because of the finality of its judgment.
