By Charles Ebube – Abuja
It is no longer news the ugly situations rasing it’s heads in the regional ECOWAS Court of Justice which is deferring solutions from the management who have decided to work against itself, breaking it’s own rules and regulations in the case of Barrister Temitope Obasaju Stephen, the Executive Assistant to the Nigerian judge.
What further evidence did Nigeria Government needs, on the lingering human rights abuse against one of their own people at the highest level of the regional body, attested to have distinguished himself in discharging his professional duties without any rancor, who is now been sacrificed on account of individual greed on the parts of the judges in question.
It is high time the Nigeria Government wake up to its responsibility and provide necessary leadership to resolve the impasse that may dent the glittering image of the ECOWAS institutions, as the issue at hand has been confirmed not to be new hence precedence should be followed to save the name of the regional body from the public ridicule Justice Amoako Ashante leadership has subjected it to in the recent time.
As been captured by the anonymous response from the anonymous lawyer of ECOWAS Court of Justice who tried to defend the illegal actions of President Justice Amoako Ashante for excluding the Nigerian Executive Assistant from the extension of tenure of the judges of the Court.
Details.
ANONYMOUS MUHAMMAD RESPOND TO JUSTICE AMOAKO ASHANTE SWIPE ON TEMITOPE OBASAJU STEPHEN ON GHANA ONLINE PUBLICATION, CALLS FOR RESOLUTION.
The GHANA on line publication on Friday 28th October 2022 published The Honorable Justice Amoako Ashante response to all the allegations laid against him by Temitope Obasaju Stephen through anonymous senior lawyer writing unbehalf of the President of the ECOWAS Court of Justice in an attempt to discredit the professional competence of Stephen Obasaju Temitope.
The account is on the link below:
ECOWAS Court: Staff who claims violation of his fundamental Human Rights has no case – Snr Lawyer
In a twist of event and as fate will have it, an anonymous person by name Muhammad who have an indepth knowledge on what transpired sent in this rejoinder and response to lay the issue to rest on the same site as follows:
“MOHAMMED Says 1 day ago
Good morning everyone, my name is Mohammed from the ECOWAS COMMISSION, I was very disappointed when I saw this response from an anonymous lawyer trying to defend the President of the ECOWAS Court and it’s management without putting the facts in a clearer context.
I actually expected absolutely mute to what ever correspondence coming out from Mr Temitope Stephen and the management to have called him in private to sort out all the issues rather than coming to a national media to respond.
I’m a professional staff at the ECOWAS commission and I am very familiar with all the existing laws and regulations especially relating to staff issues.
Mr Stephen outline the facts especially when the management terminated his appointment in 2019 but was restored at the level of the Council of Ministers after the facts were discovered that the management was at fault.
I don’t need to go into the details because it will damage the reputation of the Nigerian Judge whom appointed him (Mr Stephen) and what transpired.
The ECOWAS Staff regulations is clear on the areas of what ever appointment given to a staff be it permanent, temporary and contract, that an end of contractact notification or notice for a period should be given and in the case of Mr Stephen that his appointment is for a fixed term, a month end of contract notification ought to have been given to him by the president of the ECOWAS Court Justice or his representative.
As regards to the extension, the law is very clear, even though the Executive Assistant to the Nigerian Judge was nominated by her the judge, ratified by the president and the Office of the Auditor General of the institution, the contract appointment is tied to her and he’s entitled to the extension unless the Nigerian Judge is changed by the government, what this means is that her contract is not a new one and by extension all her handlers are to enjoy the statutory flavour because his contract is tied to hers.
This is the area at which the Council Of Ministers based their argument in 2019 by restoring Mr Stephen appointment and asked the management of the ECOWAS Court to pay him all his entitlement for the period that he was absent from duty.
Further more, the COM instructed the ECJ through the office of the AG to redeployed The EA to Nigerian Judge because he has loss professional relationship with his principal on the job and another internal staff be moved to her office for avoidance of unnecessary litigation.
There was a similar case at the ECOWAS Commission between the commissioner Administration and His EA too then and such solution adhered to.
In the area of competency, I will advise this anonymous lawyer to go on a serious research about the said Mr Stephen,
He (Mr Stephen)was know for a hard working even the President of the court attested to this number of time when he visited the AG many times, the President of the court confirmed to the AG that Mr Steven is a renowned researcher and is an asset, even the then President of the ECOWAS commission was happy with that recommendation.
On the area of the P5 research position interview, we all know what happens at the Management Succession Committee interview in room 535 of the ECOWAS Commission, The record is there and all of us that were at the interview hall knew what happened.
Although the President of the court of justice wasn’t seated at the interview as a result of conflict of interest, he told the committee that he had two candidates varying for the position, he then moved to the AG’s office and asked the vice President of the ECOWAS Court of justice to represent him, but at the decision level, the President of the ECOWAS Court was there and one of his interests between the Court Registrar (CR) position and the P5 research position persisted and the then President of the commission openly told him that the CR position is a no go area, that the whole ECOWAS will go down if anything contrary to what the current CR scored is altered because he was ahead of the lady from the Gambia whom scored 83% but was promised that he will offer her another P5 position which he agreed.
So, the EA to the President of Court that scored low and came 5th on the list of 12th participants, the then President of the ECOWAS Commission and the President of the court called on the the commissioner HR to work on the existing plan and today, the position of the Research officer P5 was later given to the EA to the President of the court.
So, it will not be nice if the management of the ECOWAS Court of justice and the President are out to defend nothing outside what the anonymous lawyer was informed of.
I’m a staff of the ECOWAS Commission and will be anonymous but gave one of my name until the anonymous lawyer brings out his name for us to know each other.
What is paramount here is that both Mr Stephen and the management of ECOWAS COURT OF JUSTICE are wrong by not managing our internal crisis however, they should correct the wrong immediately.
How will the world and other international organisation look at the Community Court that was supposed to be a safe heaven for the community citizen and now dealing with it’s own and the President on this controversy.
I beg the management and the ECOWAS President commission who is the chief legal officer to intervene before it will get out of hand .
The case filed by Mr Stephen before the ECOWAS Court of justice should be given attention, that is abused on his rights of employment is abuse already and ECOWAS professional staff representatives informed the President of the court on this development but the President of the ECOWAS Court of justice told them that he wasn’t at the position to offer or extend any contract of Stephen, the Nigerian Judge requested for a new EA.
The world is watching, I keep receiving calls from all Nigeria government agencies regarding this situation.
Is not a good one for our institution.
Thank you for all your time.”
Whether Temitope Obasaju Stephen will publish his own personal response on Nigeria news media as promised is yet to be seen tomorrow.
DEMOCRACY NEWS AS MUHAMMAD RESPONSE COPIED FROM: https://ghananewsonline.com.gh/ecowas-court-staff-who-claims-violation-of-his-fundamental-human-rights-has-no-case-snr-lawyer
FOR THE BENEFIT OF NIGERIAN READERS FOLLOWING OUR STORY.
From the submission above, it is clear that the president of ECOWAS Court and the management are only out to rubbish Barrister Temitope Obasaju Stephen on account of personal vendetta which has made them to sojourn in illegality without recourse to what become of the highly respected regional body reputation among commity of international institutions.
It has also been established that it is an abuse on the parts of the management to want to shift the goalposts at the middle of the game whereas the staff rules and regulations is very straightforward on the issue, let them just follow the rules.
In conclusion, time is of the essence as Nigeria Government should not be seen as handicap in handling the issues at hand as the principal actors in the circumstances are Nigerians who should have been working together for the interest of the country but the reverse is the case.