Falana drags Nigeria to ECOWAS court over alleged abduction, detentions under military rule

Human rights lawyer Femi Falana, SAN, has sued the Federal Republic of Nigeria at the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice over alleged violations of his fundamental rights during successive military administrations in the 1980s and 1990s, TheCable reports.

In the suit marked ECW/CCJ/APP/30/2026 and filed in Abuja, Falana is seeking declarations that his arrests, detentions, alleged abduction and restrictions on his movement were unlawful. He is also asking for $10 million in damages for alleged violations of his rights to personal liberty, dignity, fair hearing, property and freedom of movement.

According to the suit, his confrontation with the authorities began during his NYSC year in Oyo State between 1982 and 1983, when he represented University of Ibadan students. He alleges that NYSC authorities withheld his discharge certificate.

“Even though the applicant completed the service, the authorities of the National Youth Service Corps seized his discharge certificate for defending the students without official permission,” the application stated.

Falana alleges that he was arrested in June 1985 and detained for seven weeks by the National Security Organisation, and abducted from his Lagos home in 1990.

A court order for his release on June 8, 1992 was allegedly disobeyed by the Babangida administration.