party that complains of a denial of the right to fair hearing which is a fundamental
right open to any party who is affected by a tribunal’s decision since that right is
not dependent on human rights, and for that reason a party who has such a
complaint of denial of fair hearing should not be thrown out of a Court without
first being heard. Unfortunately, none of the reliefs being sought by the Plaintiff
relates to the issue of fair hearing.
The Court has equally evaluated two decisions of this Court cited by the Plaintiff in
support of its case; OBIOMA C.O OGUKWE v. REPUBLIC OF GHANA
ECW/CCJ/APP/12/14 and ABIA AZALI AND ANOR. V. REPUBLIC OF BENIN
ECW/CCJ/JUD/01/15. In these case, the ratio decidendi has to do with the
negligence of the member states concerned in exercising due diligence over non
state actors. In the present case, the acts complained of by the Plaintiff are directly
against the Defendant as a contractual party. To this extent these cases are hereby
distinguished.
This Court, minded by the plethora of decisions on the incompetency of a corporate
body to institute an action for violation of humans rights as espoused above has
come to the conclusion that, the Plaintiff in the instant case being a corporate
entity, lacks the capacity to bring this suit and the Court is bereft of competence to
entertain same; and as such, this case is rendered inadmissible.
It is the law that if an action fails on a plea of lack of capacity, the court does not
proceed to determine the merits of the case irrespective of the evidence.
However, since the facts relied on by the Defendant is contained in the Affidavit in
Support of the Preliminary Objection which is being challenged by the Plaintiff, the
Court will briefly consider the argument of the Plaintiff in respect of the propriety
18