…awards ₦5m compensation to 94-year-old investor
The ECOWAS Court of Justice sitting in Abuja has ordered the Federal Government of Nigeria to probe the 1978 seizure of shares belonging to a 94-year-old Nigerian businessman, Mr. Kolawole Koiki, in the New Nigeria Salt Company Limited by the then military government.
The regional court also awarded Mr. Koiki ₦5 million as compensation for the violation of his right to a fair hearing within a reasonable time, contrary to Article 7(1)(d) of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, to which Nigeria is a state party.
In addition, the court directed the Federal Government to take all necessary measures to ensure the prompt hearing and determination of Mr. Koiki’s complaint pending before the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), without further delay.
The judgment followed a suit filed by Mr. Koiki against the Federal Republic of Nigeria over the prolonged failure of the NHRC to conclude the hearing and determination of a complaint he lodged with the Commission concerning the seizure of his shares.
Mr. Koiki’s complaint relates to the takeover, in 1978, of the New Nigeria Salt Company Ltd by the Federal Military Government under a law that expressly ousted the jurisdiction of courts from entertaining any legal challenge to the seizure. He maintained that his shares were taken without compensation.
The suit, instituted on his behalf by human rights lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mr. Femi Falana, argued that the failure of the NHRC to conclude investigations into the complaint amounted to a breach of Mr. Koiki’s fundamental right to a fair hearing under Article 7(1) of the African Charter.
Delivering judgment in suit number ECW/CCJ/APP/46/21 on November 17, 2025, the ECOWAS Court noted that Mr. Koiki owned 216,000 shares out of the 480,000 shares in the New Nigeria Salt Company Ltd, representing about 46 per cent equity, at the time of the seizure. The company was incorporated in 1973.
The court observed that although Mr. Koiki submitted his complaint to the NHRC in 2010, the Commission failed or refused to complete investigations and issue a report on the matter for several years.
According to the court, the complaint before it was not about the merits of the original seizure of the company or whether that issue was justiciable under Nigerian law, but rather whether the applicant’s right to a fair hearing within a reasonable time was violated by the NHRC’s failure to conclude its process.
The Federal Government had argued that the NHRC began preliminary investigations in 2014 but could not conclude the matter because the Governing Council of the Commission, which alone has the power to determine complaints, was dissolved in 2015 and not reconstituted until 2021. The government also contended that the complaint was essentially a commercial dispute over equity interests, not a human rights issue.
However, the ECOWAS Court rejected these arguments, holding that it is the responsibility of a state party to the African Charter to organise its judicial and quasi-judicial institutions in a manner that ensures the effective enjoyment of the right to a fair hearing.
The court noted that for about six years, from 2015 to 2021, no action was taken on Mr. Koiki’s complaint due to the dissolution and non-reconstitution of the NHRC Governing Council, an act attributable solely to the Nigerian state.
It held that this prolonged inaction was inexcusable and amounted to a violation of Mr. Koiki’s right to a fair hearing within a reasonable time under Article 7(1)(d) of the African Charter.
Consequently, the court ordered the Federal Government to pay ₦5 million as general damages and to ensure that the NHRC promptly concludes the hearing and determination of the complaint.
The judgment reinforces the obligation of member states to ensure that human rights institutions function effectively and without undue delay, particularly where the rights of vulnerable and elderly citizens are concerned.
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