Femi Falana, human rights lawyer and senior advocate of Nigeria (SAN), has sued the Federal Republic of Nigeria at the ECOWAS community court of justice over alleged violations of his fundamental rights during successive military administrations in the 1980s and 1990s.
In the suit marked ECW/CCJ/APP/30/2026 and filed in Abuja, Falana is seeking declarations that his arrests, detentions, alleged abduction and restrictions on his movement were unlawful.
He is also asking the court to award him $10 million in damages for alleged violations of his rights to personal liberty, dignity, fair hearing, property and freedom of movement.
Falana is asking the ECOWAS court to consider the alleged violations under the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and applicable ECOWAS legal instruments.
According to the suit, Falana’s confrontation with the authorities began during his National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) year in Oyo state between 1982 and 1983.
He represented University of Ibadan students charged with conspiracy and attempted murder following a dispute involving the university’s vice-chancellor.
Falana alleges that the NYSC authorities withheld his discharge certificate because he represented the students without official permission.
“Even though the applicant completed the service, the authorities of the National Youth Service Corps seized his discharge certificate for defending the students without official permission,” the application stated
Falana said the students were eventually successful in the case.
In June 1985, he alleges that armed agents of the then National Security Organisation (NSO) arrested him at the Lagos state high court, searched his chambers without a warrant and found nothing incriminating.
He said he was detained for seven weeks at the NSO facility at 15 Awolowo Road, Ikoyi, Lagos, in “dehumanising conditions.”
Falana said he was released on August 30, 1985, after the coup that brought Ibrahim Babangida to power.
Babangida’s administration later renamed the NSO as the State Security Service (SSS) and established a panel led by Samson Uwaifo, a former judge, to investigate cases of detention.
Falana appeared before the panel but disputed the explanation given for his detention in the panel’s white paper.
He alleged that the SSS told the panel his detention was connected to his role in the defence of musician Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, who had been prosecuted for foreign exchange-related offences.
Falana maintains that the explanation was false, noting that Isola Kanmi-Osobu, who had led him in Fela’s defence, was neither arrested nor detained.
ALLEGED ABDUCTION, TRAVEL RESTRICTION, JUNE 12 PROSECUTION
The senior lawyer also alleged that he was abducted from his Lagos home at about 2am on April 8, 1990, by officials of the SSS, driven towards the Lagos-Epe road and abandoned in a bush.
He said he eventually found his way to Epe and returned to Lagos.
Falana alleges that the SSS denied involvement and that the military government declined his request for an investigation.
In October 1991, he said the SSS prevented him from travelling to Harare, Zimbabwe, for a human rights conference and seized his international passport for six months.
He is asking the ECOWAS court to declare that the restriction violated his freedom of movement under Article 12 of the African Charter.
Falana alleges that he, Beko Ransome-Kuti, brother of Fela Ransome-Kuti, and Baba Omojola were arrested on May 19, 1992, and detained before being transferred to Kuje Correctional Centre in Abuja.
He said Gani Fawehinmi, late human rights lawyer, was subsequently arrested and taken to Kuje after seeking their release.
According to the application, a judge ordered Falana’s release on June 8, 1992, but the Babangida administration did not comply.
“The Ibrahim Babangida military junta ensured that the order for applicant’s release was disobeyed without any legal basis,” the suit states.
Falana, Fawehinmi, Ransome-Kuti and Omojola were later charged with conspiracy and treasonable felony over an alleged attempt to overthrow the military government.
Falana alleges that the defendants were held incommunicado and prevented from choosing their lawyers.
He further alleges that he, Fawehinmi and Ransome-Kuti were arrested and prosecuted after opposing the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election.
They were charged with conspiracy, sedition and incitement, according to the application.
Falana said court orders granting bail were initially disobeyed and the activists remained in detention until their release in August 1993.
The application also cites findings attributed to the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and reports by Amnesty International concerning some of the arrests.
Falana argues that Ibrahim Babangida’s acknowledgement in his 2025 memoir, ‘A Journey in Service ‘, that Moshood Abiola won the June 12 election is significant because activists were arrested and prosecuted for challenging the annulment.
FURTHER ARRESTS
The suit alleges that Falana faced further arrests and detention between 1994 and 1998 over his human rights advocacy, labour activities, international engagements and his work concerning the trial of Ken Saro-Wiwa and other MOSOP leaders.
In March 1998, he said he and nine others were arrested after he delivered a paper at a labour workshop and were charged with conspiracy and unlawful assembly.
The case was later struck out for want of diligent prosecution, according to the application.
Falana is asking the ECOWAS court to declare that his arrests between 1985 and 1996 violated his right to personal liberty under Article 6 of the African Charter.
He is also seeking declarations over the alleged 1990 abduction, the seizure of his NYSC certificate and passport, and the alleged violations of his right to fair hearing during the 1992 and 1993 proceedings.
He is seeking $10 million in damages for the alleged violations.
Credit: The Cable
