ABUJA, Nigeria — The National Industrial Court, after a marathon 16-year litigation, has directed the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, to pay a colossal sum of N2.8 billion to 313 reinstated employees of the Federal Urban Mass Transit Agency.
These employees had their appointments terminated wrongfully and without legal basis.
Justice E. N Agbakoba, in her ruling on Monday, August 14, 2023, pinpointed the garnishee proceedings as NICN/ABJ/228M/2022, which was initiated by the aggrieved employees who were unjustly removed from their positions.
These claimants were all previously employed by the now-defunct Federal Urban Mass Transit Agency, operating under the Federal Ministry of Transport, and their employment contracts complied with the Federal Civil Service Rules.
The issue began when the Federal Executive Council, FEC, headed by the President of Nigeria, decided to dissolve the Federal Urban Mass Transit Agency.
As a result, on November 13, 2004, these employees were handed retirement notices, misleadingly backdated to August 31, 2004.
The affected employees, in a lawsuit tagged NICN/ABJ/324/2013, fronted by Julius Komgbenda and 313 others, countered this “retirement” as both unlawful and unconstitutional.
They stressed that based on their employment terms, they hadn’t reached the mandatory retirement age of 60 and should have been reassigned to other governmental roles.
Justice Agbakoba, in her 2020 verdict, decreed the retirements as premature, non-compliant with the 1999 Constitution, and thus invalid.
She further ordered the reinstatement of the affected employees and mandated that all owed salaries be paid until their legal termination or retirement.
However, despite this ruling, the concerned governmental bodies failed to act, forcing the claimants to initiate garnishee proceedings in 2022, citing several banks, including the Central Bank of Nigeria, as respondents.
The recent judgment of June 14, 2023, finally brought relief to the claimants.
The court commanded the CBN to settle the enormous N2.8 billion judgment sum, validating the previous 2020 judgment in favor of the aggrieved employees.
In her remarks, Justice Agabakoba censured the involved parties for unnecessary delays and trivial submissions, commenting on the audacity of these entities in attempting to shield their debts.
She emphasized that the role of a garnishee is to present a genuine reflection of accounts, not to protect the interests of a debtor, particularly when it means circumventing justice.
The judgment reaffirms the principle that no entity, however powerful, can dodge its obligations under the law and underscores the paramount importance of the rule of law in a democracy.
