Attorney’s for Niger’s ousted President has declared that they are filing a legal case in the West African country against those behind the coup that deposed the democratically elected leader.
The lawyers for Mohamed Bazoum, who was overthrown on the 26th of July and has since been detained, also said in a statement they were appealing to the UN Human Rights Council.
The complaint, which was sighted by Africa Today News, New York, is aimed at new strongman General Abdourahamane Tiani and ‘all others.’
It constitutes a civil action and alleges ‘attack and conspiracy against state authority, crimes and offenses committed by civil servants and arbitrary arrests and confinements.’
It is expected to be lodged in the next few days with a court in the capital Niamey, one of the lawyers, Dominique Inchauspe, told reporters.
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The lawyers also said they were appealing to two bodies of the UN Human Rights Council including its working group on arbitrary detention.
Inchauspe said the coup was ‘an infringement on the dignity of the Nigerien state’ and reaffirmed the ‘absolute necessity’ to restore the rule of law.
Bazoum filed a lawsuit with a court of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on September 18, his Senegalese lawyer Seydou Diagne has said.
He has been held in his residence since the coup.
Africa Today News, New York recalls that on the 13th of the August, the coup leaders said they would pursue Bazoum for ‘high treason.’
In a related development, Abdullahi Ganduje, the National Chairman of Nigeria’s ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), informed Stephen Ntim of Ghana’s New Patriotic Party (NPP) that the remedy for the increasing military coups in West Africa is effective governance.
Speaking at the APC National headquarters in Abuja, Ganduje engaged in dialogue with a delegation from Ghana’s ruling party, headed by Ntim.
The Chairman of the APC National Committee highlighted that when good governance is in place, the populace itself becomes a barrier to military involvement in the governance of African nations.
He pointed out that the presence of robust governance systems would empower the people to resist military interventions, safeguarding the integrity of democratic rule.