The Court of Appeal in Abuja has dismissed an appeal by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) seeking to block the payment of N63.7million and $10000 awarded against the Federal Government, in favour of a German, Martin Gegenheimer, for his unlawful arrest and detention by men of the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS).
A three-member panel of the appellate court held, in a unanimous judgment on May 23 (last Friday), that the appeal by the CBN was devoid of any scintilla of merit.
In the lead judgment, Justice Hamman Barka resolved the two issues identified for determination, against the CBN and in favour of the first respondent, Gegenheimer.
The Appeal Court proceeded to affirm the February 22, 2024 ruling by Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court, Abuja, ordering the CBN to pay Gegenheimer the N63.7m and $10000 awarded against the Nigerian government in a 2021 judgment by the Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
The appellate court, in the judgment on the appeal marked: CA/ABJ/CV/434/2024, also awarded N300,000 cost against the appellant (the CBN), in favour of Gegenheimer, for filing an unmeritorious appeal.
Justice Ekwo had, in the February 22, 2024, ruling, ordered the CBN to deduct the N63.7m and $10000 from the FG’s funds in its custody to settle the debt that arose from a 2021 judgment given against Nigeria by the ECOWAS Court.
Justice Ekwo rejected CBN’s claim that the Federal Government’s foreign exchange accounts were currently in deficit, making it impossible to pay the entire judgment sum.
The ruling was on a garnishee proceeding, marked: FHC/ABJ/NJR/M/3/2022, filed and prosecuted for Gegenheimer by his lawyer, Daniel Makolo, to enforce the judgment of the ECOWAS Court delivered on March 4, 2021.
Justice Ekwo agreed with Makolo that, as against the contention by the CBN, the ECOWAS Court’s judgments do not qualify as a foreign judgment in the strict sense of it and could be enforced by Nigerian courts.
The German, who said he visited Nigeria on a business trip, stated that while returning to Kenya on 23rd February 2020, he was stopped by men of the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) at the boarding gate of the Kenya Airways aircraft after all necessary departure formalities were completed.
He said the NIS officials arrested him, seized his passport and detained him in a jam-packed detention cell between February 23, 2020, and March 4, 2020, despite the COVID protocol and without acceptable food as well as medical care.
He subsequently challenged his arrest and detention before the ECOWAS Court, in a suit marked ECW/CCJ/APP/23/2020.
In the March 4, 2021, judgment, a three-member panel of the sub-regional court, presided over by the court’s president, Justice Edward Amoako Asante, declared Gegenheimer’s arrest and detention illegal.
They ordered the Nigerian government to pay him N53,650,925 as special damages for various losses suffered and costs incurred while under unlawful arrest and detention by the NIS.
The costs, the court said, relate mainly to hotel expenses incurred by the Germans while under forced detention by agents of the Nigerian government.
The court further ordered the Nigerian government to pay him another N10m in general damages as reparation for all violations and moral prejudice suffered for violating his rights, and an additional $10,000 was the expenditure incurred by the applicant to secure his bail.
The ECOWAS Court equally ordered the Nigerian government to remove the German from its watch list and to immediately and unconditionally release his German passport, which was “arbitrarily and unlawfully” seized by agents of the Nigerian government.
Meanwhile, a Federal High Court in Abuja has dismissed a charge of forgery brought against Gegenheimer by the NIS in the name of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The NIS, in the charge marked: FHC/ABJ/CR/152/2020, accused the German of, among others, forging a Nigerian international passport.
In a ruling, Justice Evelyn Maha upheld the no-case submission made by Gegenheimer (through his lawyer, Makolo) and held that the prosecution failed to produce relevant evidence to support its allegations against the defendant.
Justice Maha further held that the prosecution, having failed to make out a prima facie case against the defendant and failed to link him with the alleged offences, there was no basis to call on him to enter a defence.
She proceeded to dismiss the charge and then discharged and acquitted Gegenheimer.