The ECOWAS Community Court of Justice has delivered a landmark judgment against the Republic of Ghana, awarding ₦21 million in damages to a Ghanaian citizen who was wrongfully denied renewal of her passport and prevented from entering her country of birth.
The Court ruled on June 23, 2026, in the case of Mary Omerere v. Republic of Ghana (Suit No. ECW/CCJ/APP/25/25), finding that Ghanaian authorities violated the applicant’s fundamental rights, including her right to freedom of movement and her right to nationality.
A citizen rendered stateless
Mary Omerere, born Mary Efai Osei Ayree in Ashaiman, Ghana on January 1, 1989, is a Ghanaian citizen by birth.
She was issued a birth certificate and a passport in 2018, confirming her nationality.
Following her marriage to a Nigerian citizen, Henry Obukohwo Omorere, under Nigerian law in November 2018, Omerere applied to renew her Ghanaian passport through the Ghana High Commission in the United Kingdom, where she resides with her husband.
According to court documents, when Omerere applied for renewal in August 2023 prior to her passport’s expiration, she encountered inexplicable delays.
In August 2024, during an interview at the Ghana High Commission in the UK, a staff member informed her that the authenticity of her birth certificate was “doubtful”.
“Go to Nigeria and commit a crime”
In a disturbing turn of events, Omerere was advised by a Ghana High Commission official to “go to Nigeria and get her original birth certificate or swear to an affidavit of birth in Nigeria”.
The directive was reportedly scribbled on an unofficial sheet of paper with no name or signature by an official who declined to identify herself.
Omerere’s lawyers described this as a “manifestly illegal, strange and reckless directive” that would require their client to “proceed to Nigeria and commit a crime”.
Omerere, who has no ancestral links to Nigeria, refused to comply with the directive.
The human cost
The denial of her passport renewal had devastating consequences for Omerere and her family.
“Before the Applicant moved to the United Kingdom in 2019 from Nigeria, she has always visited her maternal grandma without hindrance by the authorities of Respondent,” the court documents state.
When her grandmother became ill in 2024, Omerere contacted the Ghana High Commission and was informed “she will not be granted entry into Ghana and her international Ghana passport cannot be renewed to enable her pay a visit”.
Her grandmother passed away in June 2024.
Omerere was unable to attend the funeral or pay her last respects to her maternal grandmother.
“She has been rendered stateless and without a country of nationality by the refusal of the Respondent and all her authorities and agency to refuse entry to the Applicant on her right to hold and possess a Ghanaian international passport and her right to movement into Ghana,” the applicant stated in court filings.
The situation also placed Omerere in a precarious position in the United Kingdom, where she resides on a visa due to expire in 2025.
The denial of her passport renewal “compromised her legal right to remain in the United Kingdom” and affected “the legal basis of her stay,” according to court documents.
Legal arguments and precedents
Omerere’s legal team, led by Emeka Ezeobi and Samuel Ihensekhien, argued that Ghana had violated Article 12(2) of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, which guarantees every individual the right to leave any country, including their own, and to return to it.
They also cited Article 21(1)(g) of the Constitution of Ghana, which guarantees freedom of movement, including “the right to move freely in Ghana, the right to leave and to enter Ghana and immunity from expulsion from Ghana”.
The legal team referenced the landmark case of Anudo Ochieng Anudo v. Tanzania (Application Number 012/2015), in which the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights held that Tanzania had arbitrarily deprived the applicant of his nationality and arbitrarily expelled him from the country.
In the Anudo case, the African Court observed that “although the applicant had not specifically alleged a violation of article 12(2) of the Africa Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights… the Court will consider this aspect, notwithstanding the fact that the Applicant left the Respondent State’s territory involuntarily”.
After finding that the applicant had been arbitrarily deprived of his nationality, the Court held that “a citizen cannot be expelled from his own country or prevented from returning to his country”.
The Anudo case established that where a person has been issued documents recognising nationality, “the burden of proof falls on the state to prove that the applicant was not a national”.
The legal team also cited Kennedy Ghana & Others v. Rwanda (Application No. 17 of 2015), where the African Court held that by arbitrarily revoking the applicants’ passports, the state “deprived them of their traveling documents and consequently prevented them from returning to their country and traveling to other countries”.
The Court’s Ruling
The ECOWAS Court held that Ghana violated Omerere’s fundamental rights, including her right to freedom of movement and her right to nationality. The Court specifically found that Ghana breached her right to leave and return to her country as guaranteed under Article 12(2) of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and Article 21(2) of the Constitution of Ghana.
The Court ruled that Ghana unlawfully interfered with her right to nationality and that she had been arbitrarily deprived of the protections attached to her citizenship status.
“The Court emphasized that African citizens cannot be arbitrarily expelled from their countries or denied entry except in accordance with due process and applicable laws,” according to the judgment summary. “The judgment reaffirmed the importance of respecting international and regional protections relating to nationality and freedom of movement.”
The Court ordered the Republic of Ghana to communicate, within six months, its decision regarding Omerere’s passport and citizenship documentation status.
In addition to the ₦21 million in damages, the Court directed that litigation costs, to be assessed by the ECOWAS Court Registry, be paid by the Ghanaian government.
Reaction from Legal Counsel
Speaking to journalists after the judgment, lead counsel to the applicant, Samuel Ihensekhien, of the League of Public Interest Lawyers, described the ruling as a significant affirmation of citizenship rights and freedom of movement within the ECOWAS region.
According to the legal team, Omerere’s case centred on the claim that Ghanaian authorities arbitrarily questioned her nationality and revoked her travel documentation without due process.
The legal team noted that repeated efforts to engage Ghanaian authorities, including requests for further verification and DNA testing, yielded no meaningful response from the Ghanaian government.
The ruling is being viewed by legal observers as a significant affirmation of citizenship rights, freedom of movement, and protection against arbitrary deprivation of nationality within the ECOWAS region.
The ECOWAS Community Court of Justice, established in 1991 and located in Abuja, Nigeria, has accepted the submission of individual complaints for human rights violations since 2005. The Court hears cases from Nigeria, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Cote d’Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo.
In a similar case, the ECOWAS Court previously ruled against Nigeria in Gregory J. Todd v. Federal Republic of Nigeria, holding that Nigeria violated Todd’s freedom of movement when his passport was “unreasonably and arbitrarily seized” by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
saharareporters.com
