The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has been taken to court by an International Civil Right Group, Egalitarian Mission for Africa (EMA) over its proposed military intervention plan in Niger.
The group is requesting the court to invoke ECOWAS protocols to stop the planned military action against Niger in the suit instituted on its behalf by a Nigerian lawyer, Kayode Ajulo.
Marked ECW/CCJ/APP/3/23, the suit states that ECOWAS treaties prohibit aggression among Member States.
The group wants the court to invoke relevant ECOWAS treaties and international laws to stop the military invasion of Niger.
According to EMA, any military intervention in Niger would be tantamount to aggression between ECOWAS member states.
Speaking further, the group stated that the planned military action or invasion would run foul of the obligations in the ECOWAS treaties and therefore amount to illegality.
Besides the EMA, other plaintiffs in the suit are a former Director General of the Nigerian Institute of the Internal Affairs (NIIA), Prof Bola Akinterinwa and Hamza Dantani, a Northern Nigeria-based lawyer.
The Defendants in the case are the ECOWAS, the Authority of Heads of State and Government of ECOWAS, the President of ECOWAS Mission, the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Republic of Niger.
A date for the hearing of the suit hasn’t been fixed yet.