JUDGMENT FIXED FOR 17 May 2023 IN A CASE FILED BY THE BROTHER OF ONE OF THE 58 VICTIMS OF EXTRAJUDICIAL KILLING BY THE GOVERNMENT OF GAMBIA
The ECOWAS Court will on 17th May 2023 deliver judgment in a case filed by the brother of one of the 58 ECOWAS citizens killed by security agents of the government of The Gambia following the seizure of their boat on 21st of July 2005 within the country’s territorial waters while migrating to Europe.
The date was announced on 2nd March 2023 by Justice Edward Amoako Asante, the presiding judge, after the three-member panel of judges in the suit heard from the parties.
Earlier, the Court noted both parties’ consent for continuation of hearing of the substantive case due to their inability to reach an amicable settlement.
Mr Marshal Abubakar, lawyer to the Applicant Kehinde Enagameh who is a brother to one of the deceased, claimed his brother and other victims were arrested, detained, tortured and killed at various locations on the orders of the former president, Yaya Jammeh.
Relying on various Articles of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, Universal Declaration on Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Mr Abubakar claimed the violation of the deceased’s rights to life, dignity of the human person, physical and mental health, liberty, freedom of movement, fair hearing and presumption of innocence, property, freedom from discriminations, equality before the law, and right to remedy by competent national courts.
He told the Court that the deceased Omozemoje Paul Enagameh was among 58 ECOWAS citizens comprising Nigerians, Ghanaians, Sierra Leoneans and Togolese in possession of valid international passports and other travel documents enroute to board a ship on high sea to Europe before they were arrested by agents of The Gambian navy on 21st July, 2005.
He added that three escaped while the remaining 55 were detained, tortured and summarily executed on July 22 and 23, 2005 after they were stripped of their travel documents, monies and valuables.
The lawyer submitted to the Court, Newspaper reports showing some of the dead bodies, a graphic report prepared by Nigeria’s High Commission in The Gambia and confessions by the alleged perpetrators in the report of the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparation Commission that sat in The Gambia after the exit of former president Jammeh.
He requested among others an order of the Court for the payment of 500,000 USD as damages to the Applicant for the gruesome murder of his brother Paul Enagameh.
On their part, The Gambian government did not file any statement of defense. Kimbeng Tah, principal state counsel who represented The Gambia told the Court that the reports filed by the Applicant were public documents not in dispute but that the case has been overtaken by events following government’s proposed Reparation Bill before its National Assembly which will cater for victims and their families.
He added that the government has been working on resolving issues and has developed a reparation plan.
Justice Asante, presiding judge adjourned the case ECW/CCJ/APP/34/20 to enable the panel examine the written processes and oral submissions made before it before reading the Court’s decision on 17th May, 2023.
On the panel were Justices Edward Amoako Asante, Gberi-Be Ouattara and Dupe Atoki.