Illegal detention: Court orders CBN to pay German national N63.7m  

In a significant legal development, the Federal High Court in Abuja has directed the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to disburse the sums of N63.7 million and $10,000 to a German national, Martin Gegenheimer. The court’s decision stems from a case where Gegenheimer secured a judgment against the Nigerian Government at the ECOWAS Court.

Gegenheimer had filed a lawsuit, marked ECW/CCJ/APP/23/2020, against the Federal Government over his alleged illegal arrest and detention by the Nigerian Immigration Service during the COVID-19 period in 2020. He detailed that the Immigration Service confiscated his passport, subjected him to overcrowded detention facilities, and deprived him of proper food and medical care, all in violation of COVID-19 protocols.

The ECOWAS Court, in a ruling on March 4, 2021, declared Gegenheimer’s arrest and detention illegal and ordered the Nigerian government to compensate him. Specifically, the court mandated the government to pay N53,650,925 as special damages for losses suffered during the unlawful detention, along with an additional N10 million as general damages and $10,000 for expenses incurred in securing his bail.

In a bid to enforce the ECOWAS Court’s judgment, Gegenheimer approached the Federal High Court in Abuja. In response, Justice Inyang Ekwo ruled that the CBN should deduct the awarded amount from the Federal Government’s funds in its custody to settle the debt.

Justice Ekwo dismissed CBN’s argument about deficits in the government’s foreign exchange accounts, emphasizing that the ECOWAS Court’s judgments could be enforced by Nigerian courts without being classified strictly as foreign judgments. He invoked relevant provisions of the Reviewed Treaty of ECOWAS and the 2005 Supplementary Protocol to support his decision.

The judge said: “Upon a keen perusal of the provisions of the Foreign Judgments Reciprocal Enforcement  Act 2004, it cannot be said that the judgment sought to be enforced in this case is stricto sensu (in the strict sense) a foreign judgment.

“I agree with the learned counsel for the judgment creditor that by Article 15 of the Reviewed Treaty of ECOWAS, and Article 24 of the 2005 Supplementary Protocol (which amended the 1991 Protocol), the judgment of ECOWAS Court can be registered and enforced in Nigeria by this court without referring to it as a foreign judgment, in the same manner, that the judgment of any other court in Nigeria can be registered and enforced in this court.”