Headline

ECOWAS Court Throws Out Dasuki’s Suit Against FG

Published

1 year ago

June 10, 2024

The ECOWAS Court on Monday set aside an application filed by the former National Security Adviser, retired Col. Sambo Dasuki, who approached the court to order the Nigerian government to enforce a previous judgment delivered in his favour.

Recall that Dasuki, a former NSA under President Goodluck Jonathan, dragged the Federal Government before the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, where he claimed that his life was in danger.

Dasuki claimed that he had been kept under house arrest by armed operatives of the Department of State Services.

In a fundamental rights enforcement suit he filed against the Federal Government, Dasuki pleaded with the court to uphold his rights to dignity and security of life as the DSS operatives laid siege to his house and prevented him from travelling abroad for medical treatment.

Dasuki filed the same suit at the ECOWAS court where he obtained a favourable judgment delivered on October 4, 2016, ordering his release from illegal custody.

In a suit marked: ECW/CCJ/JUD/23/16, Justice Friday Nwoke, declared the government’s action against Dasuki as “arbitrary, unlawful, a mockery of democracy and the rule of law, and a violation of local and international rights to liberty”.

The court held that Dasuki’s arrest and detention by the Nigerian government was unlawful and a violation of his rights.

The court further held that the government’s action violated Dasuki’s rights under the African Charter of Human and People’s Rights and the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights.

It, therefore, ordered the release of all the seized properties of Dasuki, as well as a payment of N15,000,000 in damages to the applicant.

The Federal Government however failed to comply with the judgment and refused to enforce the said judgment.

This led Dasuki to file an application before the court asking for its enforcement.

The federal government on its part, during the trial, denied Dasuki’s allegations, stressing that the properties being claimed by Dasuki were subjects of ongoing criminal proceedings, which he did not disclose in the suit.

The respondent’s counsel had argued that the government had already fulfilled its obligations, adding that the court’s Chief Registrar had issued a Writ of Execution, making the relief prayed for by the applicant unnecessary.

Delivering judgment in his application for enforcement of fundamental rights, today in Abuja, Justice Sengu Koroma, the Judge Rapporteur, dismissed it on the ground that the court lacked jurisdiction to entertain or enforce the earlier judgment.

Koroma said the court was guided by laid down procedures regarding the enforcement of its judgments as enshrined in the Community Law, and the proper party to institute an enforcement failure claim.

“Having thoroughly assessed the claims and constitutive texts of the Court, it lacks the competence to adjudicate the present claim,” the court said.

The panel, which comprised Justice Edward Asante, Justice Sengu Koroma and Justice Ricardo Claúdio Gonçalves awarded no costs to parties in the suit.

Headline

42 Killed In Israeli Attacks, Says Gaza’s Civil Defense

Published

11 hours ago

August 24, 2025

Editor

Gaza’s civil defence agency reported at least 42 people killed in Israeli attacks on Sunday, as the Israeli army prepared for a new assault on the Palestinian territory’s largest city.

Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said there had been several air strikes around Gaza City — which the military is gearing up to capture — including one in the Al-Sabra neighbourhood that killed eight people.

Attacks were also reported elsewhere across the territory, he said, with the “total tally currently rising to 42 dead”.

The army did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the figure.

“The situation is extremely dangerous… Each day, each minute, there are bombings, martyrs, death and blood — we can’t take it anymore,” Al-Sabra resident Ibrahim Al-Shurafa told AFP, explaining strikes and shelling were ongoing.

“We don’t know where to go. Death follows us everywhere,” he added.

Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defence agency or the Israeli military.

The October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel that sparked the war resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Israel’s offensive has killed at least 62,686 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza that the United Nations considers reliable.

AFP

Headline

Venezuela Frees Eight Opposition Leaders

Published

12 hours ago

August 24, 2025

Editor

Venezuelan authorities released eight opposition leaders from jail early Sunday, including a former congressman and two Italian citizens, and granted house arrest to five others, an opposition politician said.

Most of those released had been charged with corruption in opposition-run mayoral offices.

Also set free was Congressman, Amirico de Grazia, detained amid protests that erupted during President Nicolas Maduro’s reelection in 2024.

“Today, several families are once again embracing their loved ones. We know there are many left, and we have not forgotten them; we continue to fight for everyone,” two-time former presidential candidate Henrique Capriles said on X.

Opposition leaders Victor Jurado, Simon Vargas, Arelis Ojeda Escalante, Mayra Castro, Diana Berrio, Gorka Carnevalli, as well as Italian nationals Margarita Assenzo and de Grazia were released, Capriles said.

Nabil Maalouf, Valentin Gutierrez Pineda, Rafael Ramirez, Pedro Guanipa, and David Barroso were placed under house arrest.

The Italian government confirmed the release of de Grazia and Assenzo, who must appear in court to clarify the conditions of their release. It also vowed to continue working on securing the release of other detained Italians.

“We have always said, and we maintain it: we will talk to whomever we need to talk to so that there is not a single political prisoner in our Venezuela!” Capriles added.

AFP

Headline

Russia, Ukraine Exchange Prisoners Of War, Civilians

Published

12 hours ago

August 24, 2025

Editor

Russia and Ukraine each sent back more prisoners of war on Sunday in the latest in a series of exchanges that have seen hundreds of POWs released this year, the two sides said.

Large-scale prisoner exchanges were the only tangible result of three rounds of talks between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul between May and July.

They remain one of the few areas of cooperation between the two countries since Russia’s offensive began in 2022.

“On August 24, 146 Russian servicemen were returned from the territory controlled” by Kyiv, the Russian defence ministry said on Telegram.

“In exchange, 146 prisoners of war of the Ukrainian Armed Forces were transferred” to Ukraine, it added. Ukraine did not confirm any figures for the release.

Russia also said that “eight citizens of the Russian Federation—residents of the Kursk region, illegally detained” by Kyiv were also returned.

Ukrainian forces launched a surprise incursion into Russia’s Kursk region in August last year, seizing hundreds of square kilometres (miles) of territory in a major setback for the Kremlin.

Russia deployed thousands of troops from its ally North Korea as part of a counterattack but did not fully reclaim the region until April.

Among the Ukrainians released on Sunday was journalist Dmytro Khyliuk, President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

Khyliuk was kidnapped in the Kyiv region in March 2022. He is finally home in Ukraine,” Zelensky said on social media.

Also freed was former Kherson mayor Volodymyr Mykolayenko, “who spent more than three years in captivity,” Zelensky’s aide Andriy Yermak wrote on X.

“In 2022, he was on the list for return, but Volodymyr voluntarily refused to be exchanged in favour of a seriously ill prisoner with whom he was sharing a cell in a Russian prison,” Yermak said.

AFP