The ECOWAS Court of Justice, on Wednesday, July 10, 2024, ordered the Federal Government of Nigeria to pay N2 million each to some victims of the October 2020 #EndSARS protest in Lagos State
The protests were organised by citizens against SARS, a unit of the Nigerian Police Force (NPF), in the Lekki area of Lagos, over its alleged brutality of citizens.
Delivering judgement, the Judge Rapporteur, Justice Sengu Koroma, held that Nigeria must pay each applicant N2 million as compensation for violation of their “rights to security of person”.
The ECOWAS Court also ordered Nigeria to pay the victims the amount as compensation for “violation of their rights to prohibition of torture and cruel, inhuman, degrading treatment, rights to freedom of expression.”
Other grounds of the compensation as ordered by the court included violation of their “rights to assembly, and association, failure of duty to investigate human rights violations, and right to effective remedy.”
The court also ordered Nigeria to adhere to its obligations under the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR), investigate, and prosecute its agents, who were responsible for the violations.
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The ECOWAS Court further ordered the Nigerian government to report to the court within six months on the measures taken to implement the judgement.
Justice Koroma declared that Nigeria breached Articles 1, 4, 6, 9, 10, and 11 of the ACHPR.
The law specifics the ‘right to life, security of person, freedom of expression, assembly and association, prohibition of torture, duty of the state to investigate, and the right to effective remedy.
According to the ECOWAS Court, there is, however, no violation of the applicants’ right to life, adding that the applicants filed their claims in Vitam.
It stated that several articles of the ACHPR were breached by the Nigerian government, which culminated in the fundamental breaches of human rights violation therein.
The ECOWAS Court declared that the applicants were denied the right to “effective, immediate remedy”, and ordered that the respondent make reparations to the applicants for the violation of their fundamental human rights.
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