Government guarantees the right to life as is enshrine in Section 33 (1) of
the Constitution of the Federal Republic, however that such right is not
unqualified. That execution as the consequence of a judgment by a court
does not constitute a violation of that right to life since the Constitution of
the Federal Republic provides for the same. (Objective legal fact)
6.1.4. The applicants, for their part, argued that indeed their Application
contained sufficient averments to sustain a cause of action against the
defendant. An analysis of the applicants reply shows that the major
contention of the applicants which they consider as establishing a cause of
action are the “dehumanizing and degrading treatments” allegedly meted
to them during the period of their incarceration by the defendant, and the
violation of their “right to fair hearing”
6.1.5. This court is in agreement with the holding in the case Adekeya vs. FHA
(2008) 11 NWLR Pt. 1099 that “(A) cause of action is a fact or combination
of facts which establishes or gives a right of action. It is the factual situation
which gives a person a right to judicial relief. In order words, a cause of
action is the operative fact (or facts) that gives rise to a right of action,
which itself is a remedial right…A right of action is the right to enforce a
cause of action. A cause of action accrues the moment a wrong is done to
the Plaintiff by the defendant…” Therefore in making a determination as
to whether the applicants herein have stated a cause of action to attract the
attention of this court, the averments in the Application must be searched
to determine whether a wrong is averred over which this court has the
jurisdiction to address.
6.1.6. In summary, it is the position of the applicants that they were arrested,
incarcerated, subjected to a military tribunal trial which was unfair and
without a right of appeal, that all effort on their part to access the records
of this trial for the purpose of bringing the matter up for review has proven
futile as the records cannot be accounted for, that they have been kept on
death row in dehumanizing and degrading conditions for the past 23 years
without right of family visitation and that they have been denied unfettered
access to their lawyer. Certainly these averments, if true, constitute
sufficient cause of action to trigger the judicial mechanism of this court.
6.1.7. It is the position of the defendant that the failure of the applicants to
annexed a file containing the documents relied on in support of their
application together with a schedule listing them as provided for by Article
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