The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), on Wednesday, adjudged the federal government guilty of abusing the rights of its citizens who held #ENDSARS protests against police brutality and bad governance at the Lagos Lekki Toll Gate in October 2020.
A panel of three justices including the judge rapporteur Koroma Mohamed Sengu, Dupe Atoki and Ricardo Claúdio Monteiro Gonçalves who wrote the judgement stated that the “disproportionate use of force” to disperse demonstrators and upend protests violated six articles of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and thus, awarded N2 million to each of the three victims named in the suit.
The justices, after examining the testimonies and submissions of applicants, found that the Nigerian government violated the human rights to liberty and security, assembly, free speech, and dignity and deployed unnecessary force in plain contravention of existing laws of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, particularly Articles 1, 5, 6, 9, 10, and 11.
The plaintiffs, Obianuju ‘DJ Switch’ Catherine Udeh, Perpetual Kamsi, and Dabiraoluwa Adeyinka in the motions sought, claimed they suffered dearly in the hands of military officers between the night of October 20 and early morning of October 21, 2020.
DJ Switch, who streamed the dreadful night on her Instagram page, alleged soldiers shot at peaceful protesters which made her a target of people who wanted to cover up the incident. She claimed she was inundated with calls of threats to her life leading her to seek asylum and start a new life in another country.
The Nigerian government denied all allegations and argued that DJ Switch, through her Instagram page, turned the citizenry against law enforcement officers who were in hot pursuit of escaped bandits and Boko Haram terrorists.
The ECOWAS court further found that military officers fired live rounds at protesters and created panic among peaceful and unarmed protesters.
Mr Sengu, who delivered the judgement, held that the findings of an earlier government-constituted panel to look into the claims of human right violations on October 20, 2020 could not be entirely trusted since it lacked total independence.
It therefore, ordered the Nigerian government to investigate the allegations and submit findings including a progress report of compensation within six months.
