ECOWAS Court dismisses suit seeking N110m compensation for slain journalists

Economic Community of West African States ECOWAS Court of Justice has dismissed a petition by the Media Rights Agenda (MRA) to compel the Nigerian government to pay N10 million reparation each to families of 11 deceased journalists.

The group had, in the suit filed in 2021, also sought to compel government to thoroughly investigate unresolved killing of media practitioners between 1998 and 2021, identify and prosecute their killers.

Delivering judgment yesterday, a three-member panel, presided over by Justice Gberi-be Ouattara, with Justice Dupe Atoki ruling, held that the 11 journalists could not be equated as “public.”

The court maintained that although their murder was a gross violation, it was bereft of jurisdiction to entertain and award reparation.

Earlier, MRA’s counsel, Darlington Onyekwere, argued that states were not only prohibited from taking life outside the permissible circumstances allowed by law, but equally have an obligation to act to prevent the loss of life .

He predicated his client’s case on the African Charter, which the Supreme Court of Nigeria had held in Abacha & Ors v. Fawehinmi (2001) 1 CHR 20 to supersede domestic laws.

The activists contended that government could not rely on domestic laws to escape liability for human rights violations complained of in the case.

Onyekwere argued: “The government has failed, refused, neglected and omitted to effectively investigate, prosecute and punish killers of the journalists, who were murdered while exercising their fundamental rights to freedom of expression and of the press or under circumstances connected to the exercise of these rights.

“Unless the court intervenes, the government will neither adopt measures to protect journalists nor cause any real, transparent and impartial investigations into the killings of journalists in Nigeria, while the perpetrators of such dastardly acts will not be prosecuted and punished.”

He, therefore, prayed for a declaration, “that the failure of the Federal Government to adopt effective measures to protect and guarantee the safety of the 11 journalists under Article 66(2)(c) of the Revised ECOWAS Treaty, 1993 and Principle 20 of the Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information in Africa amounts to a breach of the obligation imposed on the government by the ACHPR and the Revised ECOWAS Treaty, among others.”

Responding, lawyer to the Federal Government/respondents and Principal State Counsel in the Federal Ministry of Justice, Solomon Ogunlowo, urged the court to decline jurisdiction and declare the suit inadmissible.

He maintained that the MRA lacked the locus standi to file and maintain the suit.

MRA, he argued, was not the victim of the human rights allegedly violated and which it is seeking to protect through the suit, adding that no victim has been properly identified and made a party to the case.

According to him, the group did not suffer any wrong or injury directly or indirectly on which basis the application could be maintained.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the deceased journalists, over whom MRA filed the suit on August 16, 2021, included: Tunde Oladepo, Bureau Chief of The Guardian’s Ogun State office, killed in Abeokuta on February 26, 1998 by gunmen, who entered his home early in the morning on that day and shot him dead in the presence of his wife and two young children.

Others are: Publisher of Newsservice Magazine, Okezie Amauben, who was reportedly shot to death by a police officer in Enugu on September 2, 1998, while, a freelance journalist with The Guardian, Fidelis Ikwuebe, was abducted and murdered on April 18.

Sam Nimfa-Jan, a journalist with Details Magazine in Jos, Plateau State, was killed outside the prison in Kafanchan, Kaduna State on May 27, 1999 while covering a communal conflict in Zangon-Kataf. His body was found with arrows.

Samson Boyi, a photojournalist with the Adamawa State-owned newspaper, The Scope, was killed by armed men on November 5, 1999 while on assignment to cover a visit by the then governor, Boni Haruna, to neighbouring Bauchi State.

Bayo Ohu, an assistant news editor with The Guardian, was shot by gunmen in his Lagos home on September 20, 2009.

Nathan Dabak, deputy editor, and Sunday Gyang Bwede, reporter, both with the Light Bearer, a monthly newspaper, owned by the Church of Christ in Nigeria, were attacked and killed by a mob in Jos on April 24, 2010 in the course of duty.

Zakariya Isa, a reporter/cameraman with the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), was killed on Oct.ober 22, 2011, while Enenche Akogwu, a reporter and camera operator with Channels Television, was eliminated in Kano on January 20, 2012 by suspected Boko Haram members.

Precious Owolabi, a National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) member carrying out his primary assignment as a reporter with Channels Television, was shot and killed in Abuja on July 22, 2019 while covering a protest by members of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria.