The ECOWAS Court has dismissed a suit instituted by a Liberian, Jack Rockson, and a company, Global Agriculture Development, challenging the Liberian government’s violation of their rights to property.

Delivering judgment in Abuja, Justice Edward Asante held that the Liberian government did not violate the applicants’ rights to own and possess property under Article 14 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.

The court’s president and judge rapporteur, leading a three-member panel comprising Justices Gberi-Be Ouattara and Dupe Atoki, dismissed all the applicants’ claims.

Justice Asante also ordered all the parties in the suit to bear their own costs.

The court noted that it had jurisdiction to entertain the suit and also dismissed the applicants’ demand for one million dollars in compensation for Rockson, who owns five per cent of Global Agriculture Development.

It also dismissed the applicants’ demand for 20,700,383 dollars with interest per annum from November 2015 to Global Agriculture Development for loss of profit on its investment in a cocoa farm.

The applicants had filed the suit marked ECW/CCJ/APP/31/17 before the court on Aug. 18, 2017.

Their lead counsel, Mr Celestus Ejezie, had, in his submission, alleged a violation of his clients’ right to possession and enjoyment of their property as guaranteed under Article 14 of the African Charter.

He had argued that the First Applicant, Mr Rockson, obtained an allocation for land in the Todee District of Liberia and leased it to Global Agriculture Development to cultivate a cocoa farm.

The applicants’ counsel claimed that the president of Liberia’s delay and/or neglect in signing and releasing the title deeds to the land prevented the applicants from defending the land and the farm against encroachment and vandalisation by third parties.

Therefore, Mr Ejezie had prayed the court to declare that the Liberian government’s delay and neglect in signing and releasing Mr Rockson’s title deeds infringed on his right to property.

He also requested the court to declare that the government’s failure to protect the cocoa farm from vandalism violated the applicants’ right to property, including the loss of expected profits, totalling $20,700,383.

In its defence, however, the Liberian government told the court that merely forwarding the title deed to the president’s office was not a guarantee that it would be signed, as necessary due diligence needed to be conducted.

It argued that private individuals destroyed farmlands and that the relevant state agencies were notified for necessary action.

(NAN)