Legal personality can be conferred either by statute or acquired by registration and
it is a prerequisite for non-natural persons to institute action either for themselves or
on behalf of others.
The fulcrum of the Defendant’s preliminary objection is that the 1st Applicant not
being a juristic person duly registered under any law of any ECOWAS member state
cannot bring the present application.
The 1st Applicant in response to the Defendant’s contention, attached a proof of
official registration under the Senegalese law and marked “Annexure1”.
The production of its certificate of registration without more, is a prima facie case
of evidence of its registration under the laws of Senegal, a member State of
ECOWAS. This fact was not contradicted by the Defendant
In SERAP V THE PRESIDENT OF THE FRN & 8 ORS 2010 CCJELR Pg. 247 para
54 this Court held that:
“With respect to the existence of the Plaintiff itself and the regularity of its constitution under
Nigerian Law, what emerged from the evidence produced before the Court, is that the Plaintiff is
an entity duly and legally registered under the Company and Allied Matters Decree of the 1999 of
the Federal Republic of Nigeria with certificate of incorporation as confirmed by Annexure A. In
the absence of any compelling evidence to the contrary, the Plaintiff is a legal entity duly
registered.”
See also National Coordination of Departmental Delegates of the Cocoa Coffee
Sector (CNDD) V. Republic of Cote d’Ivoire (2004-2009) CCJELR pg. 317.
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