THE ECOWAS Community Court of Justice sitting in Abuja has reserved for judgment the suit regarding the enslavement of a 22-year-old then in 2021 in the person of Glory Okolie by men of the Police Intelligence Response Team (IRT) of the Nigerian police force.
According to Samuel Ihensekhien, the Abuja-based human rights lawyer who represented Okolie in ECOWAS Court, the federal government in all the defenses filed before court did allude to the detention of the applicant, Glory Okolie, for more than 90 days illegally in breach of all statutes known to law, treaty, Nigerian constitution, and any legal framework.
The case was reserved for judgment after the ECOWAS court heard all arguments of the parties in this case . The ECOWAS court also before now, in 2022, awarded the monetary sum of one million against the federal government because of the FG’s nonchalant and disdainful attitude in the court. In those court proceedings, the FG delayed proceedings and hearing of this case because they refused to file any court process.
However, information about the case at ECOWAS Court chronicles how the officers of the Police Intelligence Response Team (IRT) allegedly arrested the said Glory on June 17, 2021, and held her as a maid for several weeks. She was later released on March 23, 2022, after spending 248 days in detention.
Following her release, human rights lawyer Samuel Ihensekhien and One Love Foundation, a non-governmental organization formed for the promotion of good governance and justice, headed to the ECOWAS Court seeking N100 billion naira from the federal government as “general and punitive” damages for infringing on Okolie’s fundamental human rights.
The ECOWAS court, at its first sitting, actually awarded N1 million against the federal government for delaying the proceedings.
