ECOWAS Court orders Nigerian govt to pay salaries of 244 dismissed soldiers 

The Nigerian government has been ordered to pay the salaries and allowances of 244 soldiers dismissed in 2016.

The order was given by the ECOWAS Court of Justice in its ruling on the suit filed by the dismissed soldiers.

In a statement on Friday, the court said that the order was issued by a panel of three justices of the court on Thursday.

Earlier in May, 2019, the ECOWAS Court had held that the soldiers were dismissed in a manner that violated their right to work and fair hearing.

On Thursday, while delivering a supplementary judgment to its ruling of May 15, 2019, the court asked the Nigerian government to pay all arrears of monthly allowances and salaries and other entitlements of the applicants up to January 2016.

In the ruling, delivered by Justice Keikura Bangura, the judge rapporteur, the court said its judgment on the matter came after it duly heard the parties, considered the documents and reviewed its earlier judgment.

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“The judgment of the Court ECW/CCJ/JUD/21/19 delivered on 15th May 2019 is hereby supplemented with an additional paragraph no (vi),” the court held.

The applicants, in the supplementary application they lodged before the court on June 14, 2019, they had prayed the court for an order, mandating the respondent to immediately reinstate them, including to their respective ranks, haven found that their dismissal without arraignment, prosecution and sentence by a duly constituted Court Martial was illegal, null and void.

They equally urged the court for an order directing the respondent to pay their monthly salaries and other allowances from the whole of 2015 and such other months until the date the judgment was enforced.

While the court agreed that their salaries and allowances should be paid and directed the Nigerian government to do so, it however, declined the prayer for an order directing the government to reinstate the soldiers as ‘the court did not omit to give a decision on reinstatement of the applicants in the original judgment.”

Other members of the panel of three justices of the court were Justices Gberi-Be Ouattara (presiding) and Dupe Atoki.

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