[Brinking News] Court Orders Nigeria Immigration Service To Pay Ex Staff N9.7 Million For Wrongful Dismissal |Tonextloaded

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The National Industrial Court, Abuja, on

Wednesday ordered the Nigeria Immigration

Service, to pay an ex-staff, Oguntoyinbo

Made N9.7 million in salary arrears within 30

days.

The salary as ordered by the court, was for

July 1, 1999 to Aug.31,2014.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports

that Made was employed by the Service, on

Nov. 1, 1993 as an Inspector of Immigration

on Conpass 07.

Made had approached the court to seek

redress after he was removed from the

service as a result of a retrenchment

exercise in April, 1999.

Although he was reabsorbed back into the

service in 2003, he was not part of the day

to day activities and promotion exercises of

the service.

However, by the judgment of the same court

in June, 2014, the defendant was ordered to

recognise the claimant as its staff.

Following the directive of the court, the

claimant was again reabsorbed, but was

never paid salary arrears from July, 1999 to

Aug.31,2014, as recommended by its legal

department.

Delivering judgment, Justice Rakiya Haastrup

held that the crux of the claimant’s case

was that he was denied promotion several

times by the defendant and when he was

eventually allowed to participate in 2015, his

result was never released.

She said “from the evidence before the

court via Exhibit CWM7, which contained the

legal advice from the legal department of

the defendant, it admitted an error in the

removal of the claimant from service in

1999.

”Furthermore, it is clear from the Exhibit

that there were directives from the

Comptroller General for reinstatement of the

claimant” the judge said.

She further added that reinstatement simply

involved a revocation of the act of dismissal

and restoration of payment of wages for the

intervening period.

Haastrup equally said an employee as

claimant in this case, upon reinstatement

was entitled to be paid all his arrears of

salary including fringe benefits up to the

point of reinstatement and thereafter as and

when due and payable.

The judge averred that ” the claimant has

proved his entitlement to the sum claimed,

as computed by the defendant in Exhibit

CWM8, totaling the sum of N9.705 million.

“I am of the view that the claimant has been

able to prove his case, I hold therefore that

the defendant is liable to pay the claimant

the aforementioned sum.

“I hold that the claimant has succeeded in

all his reliefs in this suit against the

defendant and all the issues are also

resolved in the favour of the claimant,” she

added.

She also declared that the exemption of the

claimant from promotion exercises from

1993 till date was an unfair labour practice,

discriminatory, unconstitutional and illegal.

Haastrup further ordered that the defendant

should immediately release the claimant’s

result in the 2015 promotion exercises and

align the claimant’s rank to that of

Comptroller of Immigration (CIS), as his

contemporaries who joined the service the

same time with the claimant.

The judge in addition ordered the defendant

to pay the claimant the sum of N2million as

general damages and awarded the sum of

N250,000 to the claimant, as cost of

prosecuting the suit.

She concluded by saying that the judgment

should be complied within 60 days adding

that failure to comply would attract 21 per

cent interest on the judgment sums.

Joined in the suit as a co-defendant were

Civil Defence, Fire Service, Immigration and

Prison Services Board and the Comptroller

General of NIS.

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