This Court has held in a number of cases that exhaustion of local remedies is not a
condition precedent for bringing a human rights claims before it and this issue need
not be over flogged.
In Sikiru Alade V Fed. Rep of Nigeria 2012 CCJELR unreported, the Court held that
the provisions of article 10(d) puts it succinctly clear that the access to this court is
not subject to exhaustion
of local
remedies
as envisaged
by: the customary
international law on this point. That the Protocol of the Court is an exception to the
general rule. While international customary law is lex generale, the provisions of the
protocol as amended by the supplementary protocol is lex specialis and therefore it
applies as an exception to the general.
Similarly, in Ocean king Nigeria Ltd V. Republic of Senegal 2011 CCJELR 139 this
Court pointed out that the exhaustion of local remedies which is derived from the
customary international law is not an inflexible rule.
The land mark case on this issue is the Courts decision in Musa Saidy khan (2010)
CCJELR p. 115 in which the court touched on all areas of objections raised by parties
on this issue and held:
i.
That the provision of a statute cannot be ousted by implication and that though
there is a rule of customary international law in support of exhaustion of local
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