• The Republic of Liberia;
• The Republic of Mali;
• The Republic of Niger;
• The Federal Republic of Nigeria;
• The Republic of Senegal;
• The Republic of Sierra Leone;
• The Togolese Republic :
6. The Plaintiffs raised preliminary objections to the jurisdiction of the Court and after
,
consideration of the facts /law relied h upon, the case was discontinued against the 2nd, 3rd, 4thh , 5th,
6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, llth, 13th and 14th defendants. The court found that there was a prima
facie evidence of alleged violation of Human rights pursuant to Article 9(4) of the Protocol
A/P1/07/91 as amended against the 1st, l2th and 15th defendants namely Republic of Benin, The
Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Togolese Republic. The Registry renumbered the latter countries
as the lst, 2nd and 3rd defendants, respectively.
7. The first Plaintiff testified and the parties filed their written submissions and adopted same and
made oral address of the written submissions. learned Counsels made oral submissions to
amplify the difficult areas and rested their respective cases. learned counsel for the plaintiff and
the 1st and 2nd defendants raised these issues for determination:
Whether the court has Jurisdiction to determine the matter.
(2)
Whether from the averments of the plaintiffs and evidence before this court, the
plaintiffs are entitled to the claim before the court.
LEGAL ARGUMENTS
8. O n the first issue for determination as to whether this court has jurisdiction to determine this
matter, learned counsel to the 1st and 2nd defendants reiterated that jurisdiction is the authority
which a court has to decide on matters that are litigated before it or to take cognizance of matters
4