ECOWAS Court hits Nigeria with N15m fine over Dasuki

– The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Court of Justice has ruled that detention of former national security adviser Sambo Dasuki’s by the Nigerian government was unlawful. – The government had argued that Dasuki was detained for his own protection and for the sake of national security – Government’s lawyers had also denied that Dasuki ever fulfilled the conditions for his bail and was not released as ordered by three high courts




Sambo Dasuki says his rights have been violated The ECOWAS Court of Justice has declared the arrest and detention of former national security adviser Sambo Dasuki by the Nigerian government as unlawful. Ruling on the case brought against the federal government before it by Dasuki over his continued detention on Tuesday, October 4, the court said the government’s action was arbitrary and anti-democratic. A three-member panel led by Justice Friday Nwoke ruled that the government was wrong in arresting Dasuki without a search warrant. It ruled that the pattern of arrest was contrary to the provisions of Section 28 of the Nigerian Police Act. The court ruled that the federal government failed to prove the reasons for the arrest and detention of Dasuki because documents presented before it only mentioned the allegations of fraud and illegal possession of arms. For this, the government was then ordered to pay a sum of N15 million as damages to Dasuki. According to Premium Times report, Dasuki had filed a N500million lawsuit against the government for keeping him detained since December 29, 2015 even after three different high courts where he was arraigned on corruption charges granted him bail.