By Eric Elezuo
In a landmark decision via a Certified True Copy (CTC) exclusively made available to The Boss, a United States of Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit for the Southern District of Texas, with the reference code, USDC No 4:23-CV-813, has quashed a court brought against a former governor of Anambra State, Mr. Willie Obiano.
Obiano was accused by five Plaintiffs, simply identified as Jane Does 1-5, who claimed that their husbands were killed under Obiano’s watch in 2020.
The CTC noted thus: “Plaintiffs sued a former Nigerian governor under the Torture Victim Protection Act of 1991 (“TVPA”), claiming he ordered military forces to
shoot and kill their husbands at rallies in Nigeria. The district court dismissed
the suit based on the common-law principle of foreign official immunity. On
appeal, the only argument plaintiffs properly present is that the TVPA
implicitly abrogates that immunity. We reject that argument and affirm.”
Further, in its concluding statement, the court held as follows: “Plaintiffs’ response is unconvincing. With no elaboration, they argue only that the availability of foreign official immunity “means the [TVPA]
was dead on arrival.” We disagree. One could have made the same argument
with respect to § 1983 and common-law immunities, which have long been
recognized by courts without rendering that statute a dead letter.
“Furthermore, as the Ninth Circuit has explained, a foreign official would not
enjoy immunity if his government disavowed his conduct, something
“Congress expected foreign states would generally” do. Doğan, 932 F.3d at
895; see also, e.g., Hilao v. Marcos, 25 F.3d 1467, 1472 (9th Cir. 1994) (preTVPA suit against former Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos allowed to proceed because the Philippine government expressly denied that Marcos’s conduct had been performed in an official capacity).
“In sum, the district court correctly ruled that the TVPA does not implicitly waive foreign official immunity.
“The district court’s judgment is AFFIRMED.”
By this ruling, Obiano, who now lives in Texas since he left office in 2022, is exonerated from the case as a result of his status-based immunity, and the fact that “the TVPA does not abrogate foreign official immunity.”
Below is a copy of the court judgment:
