The Community Court of Justice, ECOWAS has delivered its judgment in Case No ECW/CCJ/APP/18/24 concerning alleged violations of rights to presumption of innocence and human dignity of a Nigerian woman declared wanted in a publication over alleged criminal offences. The Court found that the notice improperly portrayed the Applicant as having committed criminal offences before any judicial determination of guilt and awarded her ₦1 million in compensation.
The Applicant here Ogeche Njaka who filed the case through Abuja human rights lawyer Samuel ihensekhien junior at ecowas court ,Ogeche Njaka a Nigerian resident in the United States of America who runs a non-governmental organisation (NGO) and a matchmaking programme on Facebook, alleged that she became the target of defamatory attacks and a criminal complaint after reporting an individual for defamatory social media posts.
According to the Applicant, a complaint lodged by one Maryam Shehu led to a security agency of Nigeria declaring her wanted and obtaining a warrant for her arrest without first notifying her of the complaint. Although the criminal case was subsequently struck out for lack of diligent prosecution, the Applicant contended that the security agency continued to display and permit the circulation of the notice declaring her wanted.
The Applicant argued that the publication of the notice violated her fundamental rights, specifically, her right to be presumed innocent, right to human dignity, right to equality before the law, and her right to be informed of criminal charges against her.
The Respondent State – Nigeria submitted that several attempts had been made to invite the Applicant for questioning but that she failed to honour those invitations. The Respondent further argued that the security agency lawfully obtained an arrest order from the Federal High Court before issuing the wanted notice.
The Court affirmed its jurisdiction to hear the matter and declared the application admissible, noting that the Applicant had sufficiently established her status as an alleged victim of human rights violations and that the matter was not pending before any other international court.
On the merits, the Court examined four claims relating to the presumption of innocence, dignity, equality before the law, and the right to be informed of criminal charges.
Regarding the Applicant’s right to presumption of innocence, the Court observed that the notice published by the security agency stated that the Applicant was wanted for offences which she had “committed” through various social media platforms. The Court held that the wording of the notice went beyond presenting the Applicant as a suspect and instead portrayed her as guilty of criminal offences before any trial or conviction. The Court therefore found a violation of her right to be presumed innocent under Article 7(1)(b) of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and Article 14(2) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
The Court further held that publicly portraying an individual as having committed criminal offences before a judicial determination of guilt exposed that person to stigma, humiliation, social exclusion, and reputational harm. Accordingly, it found that the publication of the notice also violated the Applicant’s right to human dignity under Article 5 of the African Charter.
However, the Court rejected the claim relating to equality before the law, finding that the Applicant had not produced evidence showing that she had been treated differently from other persons in similar circumstances.
The Court also dismissed the claim concerning the right to be informed of criminal charges, noting that the Applicant had not been arrested or formally charged and that the wanted notice itself identified the offences that formed the basis of the police investigation.
The Court declared that the Respondent violated the Applicant’s rights to the presumption of innocence and human dignity but found no violation of her rights to equality before the law or to be informed of criminal charges.
Accordingly, the Court ordered the Federal Republic of Nigeria to: Remove the notice declaring the Applicant wanted from the bulletin of the Nigerian Police Force and from any other medium where it had been published; Publish the judgment in its Official Gazette and on the website of the Nigerian Police Force for a period of six months; Pay the Applicant ₦1,000,000 (One Million Naira) as compensation for the violations established by the Court; and
Dismissed all other claims.