The wife of a staff of ECOWAS, Mrs Sarah Kingsley Odoro, who claimed to have been assaulted severally by the husband because of childlessness, has filed a suit at the ECOWAS Court alleging the violation of her fundamental human rights by the husband.

In suit no ECW/CCJ/APP/33/18 filed on 8 August 2018 but first heard on Thursday, 11th February 2021, Mrs Odoro accused the husband, Mr Kingsley Odoro, a staff of the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID), of becoming hostile after securing employment with EBID despite her financial contributions to the family during their 23 years of marriage.

She added that she even informed him of her son from a previous relationship whom he promised to adopt.

The Applicant, a Nigerian, through her counsel Mr Marcellinus Marshall alleged the violation of her rights to life, freedom of movement, property, dignity of the human person and right to freedom from torture and inhuman treatment by third Respondent, Mr Odoro an employee of the second Respondent, EBID , an arm of the first Respondent, the ECOWAS Commission.

The Applicant is seeking among others declarations of the Court that the actions of the third Respondent was a breach of her fundamental rights as enshrined in the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (Maputo Protocol) and that her ejection from their home and other properties without providing her basic needs and the needs of her son is unlawful and illegal.

Mrs Sarah Odoro is also seeking orders of the Court mandating the ECOWAS Commission and EBID to prevail on her husband to desist from further violations and threats to the Applicant and her son’s lives, an order entitling her to some of their properties and the welfare of her son and an order compelling the 3rd Respondent to pay compensation in the sum of 120 million Naira for the violation suffered by the Applicant and her son.

On their part, Mrs Eve Fantah Elam counsel to the ECOWAS Commission and EBID raised a preliminary objection challenging the appropriateness of filing the matter before the Court as it dealt with marital issues.

She argued that the ECOWAS Commission and EBID were wrongly joined in the suit and that the Court lacked jurisdiction to entertain marital affairs and as such should dismiss the suit in its entirety.

The Court noted the absence of the third Respondent, Mr Odoro, who was not represented in Court.

The matter is being adjudicated by a panel of three judges comprising Honourable Justices Gberi-Be Ouattara, Dupe Atoki and Januaria Moreira Costa.