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[JUST IN] EndSARS Protest: ECOWAS Court Finds FG Guilty Of Human Rights Violations

Published

1 year ago

July 10, 2024

…orders trial of security agents that attacked protesters at Lekki Toll Gate

The Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, on Wednesday, found the Federal Government guilty of violating the fundamental human rights of youths that participated in the October 2020, EndSARS protest.

The court, in a unanimous decision by a three-man panel of Justices, held that there was merit in a suit that three participants in the protest- Obianuju Catherine Udeh, Perpetual Kamsi and Dabiraoluwa Adeyinka- lodged before it.

Specifically, the court held that the Federal Republic of Nigeria, through its security agencies, violated Articles 1, 4, 6, 9, 10, and 11 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, ACPHR, pertaining to the right to life, security of person, freedom of expression, assembly and association, prohibition of torture, duty of the state to investigate, and the right to effective remedy.

The Applicants had in their suit, alleged that these violations occurred during peaceful protests they held at the Lekki Toll Gate in Lagos State on October 20 and 21, 2020.

The regional court, in its lead judgement that was delivered by the Judge Rapporteur, Justice Koroma Mohamed Sengu, dismissed the Applicants’ allegation that their right to life as guaranteed under Article 4 of the ACPHR, was violated.

However, it ordered FG to pay each of tje Applicants the sum of N2million as compensation for violations of their security of person, prohibition of torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment, rights to freedom of expression, assembly, and association, duty to investigate human rights violations, and right to effective remedy.

Additionally, it held that FG must adhere to its obligations under the ACPHR, by investigating and prosecuting its agents responsible for the violations.

The court ordered FG to within the next six months, report to it, measures taken to implement the judgment.

The Applicants had alleged that during the peaceful protests against the SARS Unit of the Nigerian Police Force at Lekki Toll Gate, Lagos State, on October 20 and 21, 2020, the Respondent, committed several human rights violations.

Triggered by the alleged killing of one Daniel Chibuike, the protests were aimed to address police harassment and brutality.

In the suit, the 1st Applicant, among other things, told the court that soldiers shot life amunitions at protesters, resulting in deaths and injuries, which she live-streamed.

She told the court that subsequently, she started receiving threatening phone calls that forced her not not only go into hiding, but to also seek asylum.

Likewise, the 2nd Applicant, who said she was responsible for the welfare of the protesters, described how soldiers began shooting after a power cut, leading to her hospitalisation due to excessive tear gas she inhaled.

On her part, the 3rd Applicant, narrated how she narrowly escaped being shot and how soldiers refused to allow ambulance to enter the protest ground to help the injured participants.

She further told the court that she later witnessed how the victims were neglected without the provision of adequate healthcare for them at the hospital.

The 3rd Applicant told the court that with the held of her colleagues, she eventually took over and started taking care of the victims.

She alleged that she faced numerous threats and was placed on surveillance by security agents.

Consequently, all the Applicants prayed the cort to issue declaratory reliefs against FG and award compensation to them for the gross violations of their fundamental human rights.

Meanwhile, in processes it filed before the court, FG, through its team of lawyers, denied all the allegations and claims that were made by the Applicants.

It told the court that the protesters unlawfully assembled at Lekki Toll Gate on October 20, 2020, under the guise of protesting against SARS.

FG also maintained that its agents followed strict rules of engagement and did not shoot or kill protesters.

It argued that the 1st Applicant incited the crowd by playing music and using her Instagram page to stir disaffection against law enforcement agents who were targeting escapee members of Boko Haram and bandits.

FG further contended that the 2nd Applicant’s provision of logistics and welfare packages indicated her support for the violent protest.

It claimed that soldiers were present to restore peace until the police arrived, denying any harm inflicted on protesters and the alleged refusal to access to the ambulance.

More so, FG denied that the 3rd Applicant’s presence was peaceful, asserting it was meant to escalate violence.

It argued that the treatment and care of the injured were managed by the Lagos State government, insisting that the Applicants failed to provide credible evidence to support their claims and the reliefs the sought from the court.

In its judgment on Wednesday, the court held that it could not establish that there was violation of the right to life as the Applicants failed to adduce any evidence to that effect.

Nevertheless, it held that several articles of the ACHPR were breached by the Respondent (FG), which occasioned fundamental breaches of human rights.

Furthermore, the Court said it was satisfied that the Applicants were denied the right to an effective remedy.

It ordered FG to make reparations to the Applicants for the violation of their fundamental human rights.

Other members of the panel that concurred with the lead judgement, were Justice Dupe Atoki who presided, and Justice Ricardo Claúdio Monteiro Gonçalves.
VANGUARD

Headline

South Korea, Japan Protest China, Russia Aircraft Incursions

Published

5 days ago

December 10, 2025

Editor

South Korea and Japan reacted furiously on Wednesday after Chinese and Russian military aircraft conducted joint patrols around the two countries, with both Seoul and Tokyo scrambling jets.

South Korea said it had protested with representatives of China and Russia, while Japan said it had conveyed its “serious concerns” over national security.

According to Tokyo, two Russian Tu-95 nuclear-capable bombers on Tuesday flew from the Sea of Japan to rendezvous with two Chinese H-6 bombers in the East China Sea, then conducted a joint flight around the country.

The incident comes as Japan is locked in a dispute with China over comments Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi made about Taiwan.

The bombers’ joint flights were “clearly intended as a show of force against our nation, Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi wrote on X Wednesday.

Top government spokesman Minoru Kihara said that Tokyo had “conveyed to both China and Russia our serious concerns over our national security through diplomatic channels”.

Seoul said Tuesday the Russian and Chinese warplanes entered its air defence zone and that a complaint had been lodged with the defence attaches of both countries in the South Korean capital.

“Our military will continue to respond actively to the activities of neighbouring countries’ aircraft within the KADIZ in compliance with international law,” said Lee Kwang-suk, director general of the International Policy Bureau at Seoul’s defence ministry, referring to the Korea Air Defence Identification Zone.

South Korea also said it deployed “fighter jets to take tactical measures in preparation for any contingencies” in response to the Chinese and Russian incursion into the KADIZ.

The planes were spotted before they entered the air defence identification zone, defined as a broader area in which countries police aircraft for security reasons but which does not constitute their airspace.

Japan’s defence ministry also scrambled fighter jets to intercept the warplanes.

Beijing later Tuesday confirmed it had organised drills with Russia’s military according to “annual cooperation plans”.

Moscow also described it as a routine exercise, saying it lasted eight hours and that some foreign fighter jets followed the Russian and Chinese aircraft.

Since 2019, China and Russia have regularly flown military aircraft into South Korea’s air defence zone without prior notice, citing joint exercises.

In November last year, Seoul scrambled jets as five Chinese and six Russian military planes flew through its air defence zone.

Similar incidents occurred in June and December 2023, and in May and November 2022.

Meanwhile, Tokyo said Monday it had scrambled jets in response to repeated takeoff and landing exercises involving fighter jets and military helicopters from China’s Liaoning aircraft carrier as it cruised in international waters near Japan.

It also summoned Beijing’s ambassador after military aircraft from the Liaoning locked radar onto Japanese jets, the latest incident in the row ignited by Takaichi’s comments backing Taiwan.

Takaichi suggested last month that Japan would intervene militarily in any Chinese attack on the self-ruled island, which Beijing claims as its own and has not ruled out seizing by force.

AFP

Headline

Thousands Reported To Have Fled DR Congo Fighting As M23 Closes On Key City

Published

6 days ago

December 9, 2025

Editor

Fierce fighting rocked the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on Tuesday as the Rwanda-backed M23 militia rapidly advanced towards the strategic city of Uvira, with tens of thousands of people fleeing over the nearby border into Burundi, sources said.

The armed group and its Rwandan allies were just a few kilometres (miles) north of Uvira, security and military sources told AFP.

The renewed violence undermined a peace agreement brokered by US President Donald Trump that Kinshasa and Kigali signed less than a week ago, on December 4.

Trump had boasted that the Rwanda-DRC conflict was one of eight he has ended since returning to power in America in January.

With the new fighting, more than 30,000 people have fled the area around Uvira for Burundi in the space of a week, a UN source and a Burundian administrative source told AFP.

The Burundian source told AFP on condition of anonymity he had recorded more than 8,000 daily arrivals over the past two days, and 30,000 arrivals in one week. A source in the UN refugee agency confirmed the figure.

The Rwanda-backed M23 offensive comes nearly a year after the group seized control of Goma and Bukavu, the two largest cities in eastern DRC, a strategic region rich in natural resources and plagued by conflict for 30 years.

Local people described a state of growing panic as bombardments struck the hills above Uvira, a city of several hundred thousand residents.

“Three bombs have just exploded in the hills. It’s every man for himself,” said one resident reached by telephone.

“We are all under the beds in Uvira — that’s the reality,” another resident said, while a representative of civil society who would not give their name described fighting on the city’s outskirts.

Fighting was also reported in Runingo, another small locality some 20 kilometres (12 miles) from Uvira, as the M23 and the Rwandan army closed in.

Burundi views the prospect of Uvira falling to Rwanda-backed forces as an existential threat, given that it sits across Lake Tanganyika from Burundi’s economic capital Bujumbura.

The city is the main sizeable locality in the area yet to fall to the M23 and its capture would essentially cut off the zone from DRC control.

Burundi deployed about 10,000 soldiers to eastern DRC in October 2023 as part of a military cooperation agreement, and security sources say reinforcements have since taken that presence to around 18,000 men.

The M23 and Rwandan forces launched their Uvira offensive on December 1.

Rich in natural resources, eastern DRC has been choked by successive conflicts for around three decades.

Violence in the region intensified early this year when M23 fighters seized the key eastern city of Goma in January, followed by Bukavu, capital of South Kivu province, a few weeks later.

– Regional risk –

The peace deal meant to quell the fighting was signed last Thursday in Washington by Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi and his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame, with Trump — who called it a “miracle” deal — also putting his signature to it.

The agreement includes an economic component intended to secure US supplies of critical minerals present in the region, as America seeks to challenge China’s dominance in the sector.

But even on the day of the signing, intense fighting took place in South Kivu, where Uvira is located, which included the bombing of houses and schools.

Witnesses and military sources in Uvira said that Congolese soldiers fleeing the fighting had arrived in the city overnight Monday and shops were looted at dawn.

Several hundred Congolese and Burundian soldiers had already fled to Burundi on Monday, according to military sources, since the M23 fighters embarked on their latest offensive from Kamanyola, some 70 kilometres north of Uvira.
Since the M23’s lightning offensive early this year, the front had largely stabilised over the past nine months.

Burundian President Evariste Ndayishimiye warned in February there was a danger of the conflict escalating into a broader regional war, a fear echoed by the United Nations.

Headline

‘Santa Claus’ Arrested For Possessing, Distributing Child Sexual Abuse Material

Published

6 days ago

December 9, 2025

Editor

A 64-year-old man from Hamilton Township has been arrested in the United States after investigators linked him to the possession and distribution of child sexual abuse material.

The suspect, identified as Mark Paulino, had been working as a “Santa for hire” at holiday events, a role that placed him in repeated contact with children.

Mercer County officials said the investigation began on 4 December when detectives were alerted to suspicious online activity involving the uploading of child pornography from a residence in Hamilton Township. The probe quickly identified Paulino, a retired elementary school teacher, as the person involved.

Police stated that Paulino had presented himself online as a retired teacher and had recently performed as Santa Claus for photographs and private, corporate, and organisational events. “Because this role involved direct, repeated contact with children, detectives worked around the clock to secure a search warrant,” authorities explained.

The warrant was executed on 5 December, during which police seized multiple items regarded as evidentiary. Paulino was taken into custody without incident and charged with possession and distribution of child sexual abuse materials, as well as endangering the welfare of a child.

Prosecutors have filed a motion to detain him pending trial. The investigation remains ongoing, and authorities have urged members of the public with relevant information to come forward.