ECOWAS Court rejects US prisoner’s request for transfer to Nigeria

The ECOWAS Court of Justice in Abuja has rejected a request to order the transfer of a Nigerian convicted of fraud in the United States to complete his jail time in Nigeria.

The court, in a judgement delivered on Thursday, said it lacked jurisdiction to grant Richard Ugbah’s request.

Mr Ughah had told the court he had already served eight years of the 12 years jail time imposed on him, and that he was due for release in May 2026. He urged the court to issue the orders for his transfer to Nigeria to complete his jail time, having, according to him, satisfied the necessary conditions in line with the provision of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime Handbook on the International Transfer of Sentenced Persons.

He approached West Africa’s regional court to order for his transfer to Nigeria, claiming to have satisfied the requirements for such a transfer.

But delivering judgement, a member of the court’s three-member panel, Sengu Koroma, the Judge Rapporteur of the panel, declared that the court lacked jurisdiction to hear the matter.

The court upheld the preliminary objection raised by the Federal Republic of Nigeria, sued as the first respondent, declaring the applicant’s claims as “unfounded and without legal basis”.

The judge also ruled that Nigeria’s Ministry of Justice sued as the second in the case, was not a proper party before it.

The court consequently dismissed all the prayers of the applicant.

Credit: premiumtimesng.com

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