Femi Falana is a legal practitioner and a Senior Advocate of Nigeria
who specialises in constitutional and human rights law. He is also a
former President of the West Africa Bar Association (WABA).
Over the last two decades, Femi has built a reputation as an activist and
defender of the rights of journalists and citizens across the different
countries in West Africa. He has won several landmark cases in
Nigeria and at the ECOWAS Community Court of Justice.
He recently took on the Federal Government of Nigeria for freezing the
bank accounts of the #ENDSARS protest leaders for over 90 days
without due cause. He also sued the President of Nigeria, Muhammadu
Buhari, in the ECOWAS Court for suspending Twitter, calling the ban on
Twitter a “provocative infringement.”
In 2008 and 2010, he secured landmark victories at the ECOWAS Court
against the government of The Gambia in favour of Gambian
journalists, Musah Saidykhan and Chief Ebrima Manneh, who suffered
torture and enforced disappearance respectively, at the hands of the
Yahaya Jammeh government. He also served as lawyer for journalist
and founder of online publication, Sahara Reporters, Omoyele Sowore,
who was held by the Nigerian authorities in breach of his rights. In
2019, he secured the release of the Editor and Publisher of The Source
Newspaper, Jones Abiri, who had been detained by Nigeria’s State
Security Service (SSS) since 2016.
In recognition of his exceptional qualities in, and dedication to human
rights law and criminal law, Femi Falana in 2008, received the
International Bar Association’s Bernard Simons Memorial Award. He
has been a keynote speaker at conferences of the ECOWAS Community
Court and many other international legal convenings.