Falana drags FG before ECOWAS court, seeks $10m in damages over alleged rights abuses

Human rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, has filed a $10 million damages suit against the Federal Government of Nigeria before the Community Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), citing alleged violations of his fundamental rights spanning several military administrations between the 1980s and 1990s. According to Tribune, the suit, designated ECW/CCJ/APP/30/2026 and filed at the ECOWAS Court in Abuja, alleges he was subjected to unlawful arrests, detention and restrictions on his freedom of movement.

Falana is asking the court to declare the alleged violations unlawful and unconstitutional, and to award him $10 million in damages. The suit hinges on alleged violations of his rights to personal liberty, dignity, fair hearing, property and freedom of movement under the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.

Incidents cited include his 1982/1983 NYSC confrontation with the FGN, a 1985 arrest by the National Security Organisation, seven weeks of detention, and a 1990 abduction by SSS operatives who abandoned him in a bush near Epe.