ECOWAS Court Passes Judgement On Late MKO Abiola’s Wife’s Assassination

A case involving Khalifa Abiola and two other people against the Federal Government of Nigeria, which revolved around alleged human rights breaches involving the late Mrs. Kudirat Abiola, was decided by the Community Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on Friday.
The Court declared the case inadmissible in a ruling by Judge Rapporteur Hon. Justice Edward Amoako Asante, stating that the applicants had neither established a direct connection to the dead or offered any legal justification for acting as indirect victims on her estate’s behalf.

Additionally, the Federal Republic of Nigeria objected, arguing that the case was outside the purview of Article 9 of the Court’s Protocol and casting doubt on the Court’s jurisdiction. The Court dismissed these arguments.

The Court also rejected the respondent’s arguments that the matter had beyond the allotted time for legal procedures and that the applicants wanted to reopen a case that had already been decided by a national court.

Khalifa Abiola, Moriam Abiola, and Hadi Abiola, the petitioners, filed the action, which is registered under suit number ECW/CCJ/APP/62/22. They claimed that Kudirat was killed by gunmen in Nigeria and wanted to represent both themselves and the estate of the deceased.

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According to the applicants, Kudirat was the wife of Chief MKO Abiola, a well-known Nigerian politician who was blocked from assuming office by the military government under General Ibrahim Babangida after he won the June 1993 presidential election.

They contended that Chief Abiola was thereafter taken into custody, accused of treason, and placed in solitary confinement without being given a chance to defend himself.

Prior to her assassination in June 1996, Kudirat had led a campaign for her husband’s release, the applicants told the court.

They asserted that the Nigerian government’s failure to hold those responsible for Kudirat’s murder, including Sergeant Barnabas Jebila, who was named in the findings of a Commission of Inquiry, accountable had violated her fundamental human rights as guaranteed by the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.

The Nigerian government protested, claiming that the case before the court was acceptable and that the court lacked jurisdiction.

The court concluded that the case was within its jurisdiction since it pertained to the respondent’s alleged violation of human rights in neglecting its continuing obligation to bring Kudirat’s murderer responsible.