On Thursday, the Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African States dismissed a lawsuit brought by Richard Ugbah, a Nigerian who had been found guilty and who had requested to serve out his 12-year prison sentence in Nigeria rather than the United States, where he had received his punishment.
Punch claims that Ugbah has served eight of the twelve years on his sentence after being found guilty on February 14, 2017, of an offense relating to wire fraud. Moreover, his discharge is scheduled for May 8, 2026.
In the suit marked: ECW/CCJ/APP/18/21, he was said to have prayed that the inter-regional court should order his repatriation to Nigeria based on the fact that he had fulfilled the conditions for transfer in the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime Handbook in the International Transfer of Sentenced Persons.
But on the contrary, the Federal Government objected to the request, saying that the application was incompetent and against the provision of Articles 9 and 10 of Article Supplementary Protocol.
It also allegedly noted that the Ministry of Justice, as the second correspondent, was neither a community Institution, nor a signatory to the treaty of the Economic Community of West African States.
It, therefore, ordered the court to dismiss the request.
Also, the court held that the matter of competence was a legal issue, and the argument presented by the applicant has no legal basis vesting the court with the authority to hear the determined case.
