ECOWAS Court rejects US prisoner’s request for transfer to Nigeria

The ECOWAS Court of Justice in Abuja has rejected a request to order the transfer of a Nigerian convicted of fraud in the United States to complete his jail time in Nigeria.

The court, in a judgement delivered on Thursday, said it lacked jurisdiction to grant Richard Ugbah’s request.

Mr Ughah had told the court he had already served eight years of the 12 years jail time imposed on him, and that he was due for release in May 2026, according to a statement by the court’s communication unit highlighting the key issues decided in Thursday’s judgement.

He approached West Africa’s regional court to order for his transfer to Nigeria, claiming to have satisfied the requirements for such a transfer.

But delivering judgement, a member of the court’s three-member panel, Sengu Koroma, the Judge Rapporteur of the panel, declared that the court lacked jurisdiction to hear the matter.

The court upheld the preliminary objection raised by the Federal Republic of Nigeria, sued as the first respondent, declaring the applicant’s claims as “unfounded and without legal basis”.

The judge also ruled that Nigeria’s Ministry of Justice sued as the second in the case, was not a proper party before it.

The court consequently dismissed all the prayers of the applicant.
 

The suit

The applicant, a Nigerian citizen and resident in the US, was convicted by the District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin after he pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud on 14 February 2017.

He was sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment.

The ECOWAS Court’s statement said, he additionally, pleaded guilty to another count of conspiracy to commit fraud on 15 November 2017, and judgment was entered on 22 November 2017.

The applicant further told the ECOWAS Court that having served eight years of the sentence, he was due for release on 8 May 2026.

He urged the court to issue the orders for his transfer to Nigeria to complete his jail time, having, according to him, satisfied the necessary conditions in line with the provision of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime Handbook on the International Transfer of Sentenced Persons.

He also maintained that the transfer of sentenced persons is considered to be an important means of cooperation to prevent and combat crimes.

He said crimes combatting and preventing crimes are the main purposes of the United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotic Substances of 1998, the United Nations Convention against Corruption and the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organised Crime.


The applicant further argued that all three conventions cited refer to the possibility of concluding agreements to facilitate the transfer of persons convicted abroad for the offences covered by the conventions to another state to complete their sentence.
 

Nigeria opposes suit

The Nigerian government sued as the first respondent in the suit opposed the suit. It filed a preliminary objection contending that the applicant’s initiating application was incompetent by virtue of Articles 9 and 10 of the Supplementary Protocol (A/SP./01/05).

It added that its Ministry of Justice sued as the second respondent, is neither a Community Institution nor a signatory to the Economic Community of the West African States Treaty to be competent to be sued before the court.

The government further claimed that the court lacked the jurisdiction to entertain this suit. It, therefore, urged the court to strike out the notice of registration for want of jurisdiction and lack of cause of action.
 

Decision

In its decision, the court struck out the second respondent’s name as a party in the suit, based on the agreement reached by both sides in the suit.

The court went on to rule that the applicant failed to show a valid reason for his complaint against the respondent.

Premium Times

Nigerians languishing in prison for petty crimes

The Hope Behind Bars Africa has said that most awaiting trail inmates in Nigeria have been languishing in our Custodial facilities for petty crimes like loitering or hawking.

The human rights and criminal justice reform organisation said apart from such petty and misdemeanours cases, one would also find civil cases like disagreements between business partners that was given criminal correlations.

Executive Director Hope Behind Bars Africa, Mrs. Funke Adeoye revealed that 40 percent of the cases so far handled by the organisation are simple cases.

Adeoye said Nigeria’s prison population was 76,982 on the 30th of May 2023, the number which is spread across 240 custodial facilities, has about 69.3% awaiting trail inmates.

She said this yesterday in Abuja, during the organisation five years impact report/strategic plan launch and press conference.

She said, “40 percent of the cases we have handled are actually simple cases. Cases like people arrested for hawking, loitering and a lot of cases that the sanctions is less than three years. We also find very frequently people arrested by the Special Anti-Robbery squad for armed robbery but when we go into the nitty-gritty of the case we find their is no evidence, most of the cases are stalling for years on ending because their is really no evidence against the person on trail.


“We also find a lot of Civil cases that have been given criminal correlations, for instance, someone having a contract with another person and he gets the police to pick up the person, the person gets arrested and remanded.

“In the past five years, our organisation has dedicated major aspects of its work to providing free legal services to indigent pre-trial detainees, engaging in welfare, empowerment, reformation and reintegration interventions.

“Nigeria’s prison population was 76,982, on 30 May 2023. This number spreads across 240 custodial facilities. Inmates awaiting trial constitute about 69.3 percent of the prison population. This is the highest percentage of awaiting-trial prisoners in Africa,

“Hope Behind Bars Africa, having recognised this challenge, decided to leverage its legal network to foster access to justice. We started out directly representing inmates for free here in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and expanded to Kano and Edo states. Currently, we have a network of lawyers in Kaduna, Niger, Nasarawa, Edo, Kano and FCT. We have represented 420 indigent pre-trial detainees so far. About 40 percent of this number were charged with simple offences, 20 percent for misdemeanours, and the rest for felonies, capital crimes and fundamental human rights actions.”

By Matthew Ogune, The Guardian

Video - Will Nigeria's ban on foreign models help bolster local talent?

Nigeria has become the first country in the world to announce a ban on foreign models and voiceover actors in advertisements. The move, which takes effect on October 1st, is intended to bolster homegrown talent and the local economy, according to the country's advertising regulatory council. Foreign faces are a common sight in Nigerian advertisements, and voiceovers often feature British accents. But proponents of the ban say there has been a cultural shift among young Nigerians who want to see more representation on-screen and on-air. Steve Babaeko, the president of the Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria, explained: "People will tell you, 'There are about 200 million of us. Are you telling me you could not find indigenous models for this commercial?'" Reactions remain mixed. Many Nigerians support the idea of seeing more of their countrymen and women on the air. But some worry that the ban will inspire other countries to enact similar protectionist measures. In this episode of The Stream, we'll talk to industry experts about the ban and its intentions, why a change is needed and if the strategy will work.

Al Jazeera

Nigerian lawmakers pass historic oil overhaul bill

Both chambers of Nigeria's parliament have passed a bill that overhauls nearly every aspect of the country's oil and gas production, putting a project that has been in the works for two decades one step closer to presidential sign-off.

Legislators have been hashing out details of the bill since President Muhammadu Buhari presented an initial version in September last year, but an overhaul has been in the works for some 20 years.

The chambers had been expected to vote clause by clause on the more than 400-page long report, but instead quickly approved the full package.

Each chamber made changes before approving the package, and the senate lowered the share of money for oil-producing communities. The chambers will need to meet again to work out the details, but members were optimistic that they would come to an agreement next week, after which it could go for presidential sign-off.

Analysts say its approval is essential to attracting a shrinking pool of capital for fossil fuel development.

Earlier in the day, senators entered a closed-door session with the petroleum minister and the head of state oil company NNPC for a briefing on the technical terms and details.

The last key controversies related to the share of wealth for communities in areas where petroleum is produced, and those in the northern and central parts of Nigeria where there is exploration but no production yet.

The house bill signed off on an increase in the share of regional oil wealth generated from production that host communities can claim from 2.5% to 5%, but the senate approved 3%.Communities had pushed for a 10% share.

Sources said disagreements with northern leaders were managed separately following several hours-long sessions between them and federal government officials early this week.

The package also includes a string of changes sought by oil majors, including amended royalties and fiscal terms for oil and gas production, and the transfer of state oil company NNPC's assets and liabilities to a limited liability corporation created by the bill. It also divided the stakes in the new NNPC Limited evenly between the finance and petroleum ministries, but would not allow for public share sales without further government approval.

Leaders agreed earlier this year to sweeten the terms for oil companies in an effort to attract much-needed investment in an era of shrinking global cash for fossil fuel production.

By Libby George and Camillus Eboh

Reuters