PROCEDURE
1. By Application dated 10 June 2011, and filed at the Registry of the Court on 13
June 2011, through her Counsel, Chino Edmund Obiagwu (Esq.), Lawyer
registered with the Bar in Nigeria, Mrs. Sa’adatu Umar came before the Court
with a complaint against the Federal Republic of Nigeria, for her unlawful,
arbitrary, illegal and illicit arrest, physical and mental torture, the infringement
upon the dignity of the human person that she suffered, all this in violation of the
provisions of Articles 2, 4, 6, 12 (1) (2) of the African Charter on Human and
Peoples’ Rights.
2. She pleads with the Court:
i) To declare as arbitrary, illegal and illicit, her arrest and detention, together
with her three children, among whom is a baby that she is still
breastfeeding, without any charges being brought against her, for, they
constitute a violation of Articles 6 and 12 of the Charter;
ii) To declare that the curtailing of her freedom, resulting from her provisional
detention, whereas she is a nursing mother, and in the company of her
three children, is a form of physical and moral torture, thus constituting a
violation of the provisions of Articles 4 and 6 of the Charter;
iii) To order the Federal Republic of Nigeria to set her free, with immediate
effect;
iv) To order the Federal Republic of Nigeria to pay her the sum of ten million
(10,000,000.00) Naira as reparation for the prejudice suffered.
3. The Federal Republic of Nigeria, having raised a preliminary objection, the Court,
after hearing both parties, gave an interim ruling ECW/CCJ/RUL/12/12 dated 12
June 2012, in which it declared, not only its jurisdiction to entertain the case, but
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