The National Industrial Court of Nigeria (NICN) has fined the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) ₦620,000 for stalling the hearing of lawsuits filed by 62 former employees.
Justice Osatohanmwen Obaseki-Osaghae delivered the ruling on Thursday, following an oral application by the claimants’ counsel, Ola Olanipekun, SAN.
The 62 ex-staff members had filed separate suits against the apex bank, seeking to nullify their termination letters.
In one originating summons, marked NICN/ABJ/26x/2024 and filed on 22 August 2024, Olanipekun, representing one of the staff, argued that the CBN’s termination letters, titled ‘Re-ORGANISATION’ and dated 23 May 2024, were unlawful.
The claimants maintained that the letters, which took effect from 24 May 2024, violated the provisions of the CBN Act 2007 and the bank’s human resource policies, rendering the terminations arbitrary, unlawful, null, and void.
They sought declarations that their employment contracts with the CBN remained valid, an order setting aside the termination letters, reinstatement to their previous or higher positions, and payment of salaries, allowances, and other entitlements lost due to the terminations.
Olanipekun also filed a motion to consolidate the separate cases.
During the resumed hearing, Olanipekun told the court that the matter was scheduled for the hearing of the substantive originating summons and a preliminary objection filed by the CBN.
CBN’s lawyer, Wilson Inam, SAN, responded that he had filed an application on 26 November seeking to convert the claimants’ originating summons into a writ of summons, citing disputes over the facts.
“I apologise for filing it just yesterday and for serving my learner brother this morning in court,” Inam said.
Olanipekun argued that the motion was a setback to the case, which had been last heard on 2 October, and urged the court to disregard it.
He requested a cost of ₦10,000 per claimant, totalling ₦620,000, noting: “This matter was slated for hearing and the claimants and their counsel are diligently ready to proceed so that we can address the injustice done on the claimants.”
CBN’s counsel opposed the request for costs.
Justice Obaseki-Osaghae ruled in favour of the former staff, stating that the CBN’s motion had disrupted the hearing. “Cost is hereby awarded in the sum of ₦620,000, and this should be paid before the next adjourned date,” the judge said.
The matter was adjourned until 12 January 2026 for hearing of the pending motions.
It recalls a previous development in 2024 when Justice Benedict Kanyip recused himself from the suits after identifying a conflict of interest. Damian Dodo, SAN, representing CBN as part of a consortium of law firms, was revealed to be an in-law of the judge.
The 62 disengaged workers were key to the establishment of the Economic Intelligence Unit (EIU) at the CBN in 2018. The unit, created to enhance the resilience and competitiveness of Nigeria’s banking sector, investigated major cases, including the Process and Industrial Development (P&ID) affair in 2020, which led to Nigeria’s acquittal from a US$11 billion arbitral award.
The EIU also recovered N3.18 billion misappropriated by a bank agent and identified betting and gaming companies illegally repatriating foreign exchange. Despite these achievements, the former staff allege they were maliciously targeted by the bank.
No comments:
Post a Comment