By ManoReporters Writer
The Sierra Leone government has been ordered to pay US$20, 000 as fine after been found guilty of rights violations by the Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS).
Sierra Leone was found wanting for violating the rights of a local company called UNISEL limited, which was deprived of the use of its lawfully acquired property.
The verdict was delivered on Monday 10 July, 2023 in the Nigerian capital Abuja, where the regional court sits.
According to the particulars of the case, UNISEL limited brought the Sierra Leone government before the court following the latter’s failure to allow it enjoy the rights to a landed property it legitimately acquired in 2013 – a 4.99 Acre land and buildings – situated at Wilberforce in the west end of Freetown.
The applicant argued that it bought the piece of land with buildings from the government in October 2013, paying the sum of 219, 500, 000 Old Leones for the plots of land and an additional US$250,000 for the buildings. The company said it however later discovered a shortfall in the number of plots originally allocated to it for the transaction, noting that its efforts to get the relevant authorities in the Ministry of Land address the issue proved futile.
A panel of three judges headed by Justice Dupe Atoki of Nigeria heard the case. The other members of the judging panel are Sierra Leonean Justice Sengu M. Koroma and Justice Ricardo Claudio Monteiro Gonçalves of Cape Verde.
Among UNISEL limited’s prayers was for the court to rule that the government violated its rights to property contrary to Article 14 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ rights and Article 17 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).
Justice Atoki read the court’s decision on behalf of the panel of judges, noting that the action of the government amounted to the violation of the company’s right.
The ruling prohibited the government from either entering, using or selling the land, and it was also ordered to ensure that the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Country Planning, including the Director of Survey Plans, expeditiously process, approves and signs the private Licensed Surveyor Plans of the Applicant.
According to the court, the government did not file any defence in the matter despite being served.
