High court mandates the Central Bank of Nigeria to compensate a German citizen with ₦63.7 million and $10,000 due to wrongful detention.

The Federal High Court in Abuja has issued a directive compelling the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to make payments amounting to ₦63.7 million and $10,000 to a German national, Martin Gegenheimer. The awarded sum is for damages incurred due to his unlawful arrest and detention by the Nigerian Immigration Service during the COVID-19 period in 2020.


This legal development follows a judgment by the ECOWAS Court on March 4, 2021, which declared Gegenheimer's arrest and subsequent detention as illegal. The ECOWAS Court mandated the Nigerian government to compensate him ₦53,650,925 as special damages, covering various losses and costs he incurred during the unjust arrest.

In addition to the special damages, the regional court ordered the Nigerian government to pay Gegenheimer ₦10 million in general damages as reparation for the violations and moral prejudice he suffered. Furthermore, an extra $10,000 was designated to cover the expenses Gegenheimer incurred while securing his release on bail.

Gegenheimer detailed his ordeal, stating that the Nigerian Immigration Service confiscated his passport and detained him in overcrowded conditions between February 23 and March 4, 2020. During this period, he alleged being deprived of adequate food and medical care. Additionally, he asserted that he was neither informed of a justifiable reason for his arrest nor presented with a warrant or court order, which contributed to the humiliating nature of his experience.

The recent ruling by Justice Inyang Ekwo instructs the CBN to make the awarded payment by deducting the specified amount from the Federal Government's funds in its custody. This decision rejects the CBN's claim that the foreign exchange accounts of the Federal Government are currently in deficit, arguing that the ECOWAS Court's judgments do not qualify as foreign judgments in the strict sense.

Justice Ekwo emphasized that, according to the Foreign Judgments Reciprocal Enforcement Act of 2004, the ECOWAS Court's judgments can be registered and enforced in Nigeria without being labeled as strictly foreign. The garnishee order nisi issued against the CBN was made absolute, solidifying the court's stance on the enforceability of the ECOWAS Court's judgment within the Nigerian legal framework.