His Lordship, Hon. Justice Oyebiola Oyewumi of the Abuja Judicial division of the National Industrial Court has nullified the fact-finding committee report of the National Universities Commission and letter of interdiction issued to Mr. Victor Uyo dated 30th August 2007 for breach of the Cooperative Society Act, lack of fair-hearing and the contract of employment.

The Court ordered NUC to pay Victor Uyo the sum of N12,478,612.89 being 50% salary for the period of his unlawful interdiction from 6th November 2006 to 31st December 2018 as general damages and N200,000 cost of action within 30 days.

From fact, the claimant’s- Victor Uyo had submitted that he was alleged of the misappropriation of the Co-operative fund that a panel and fact-finding committee was set up to look into the allegation and without giving him a fair hearing found him guilty and consequently placed on interdiction.

He pleaded that his interdiction was for twelve years rather than 3 months as per the Guidelines for appointment, promotion and discipline and as result, he lost promotions and annual increment.

He averred that the Registrar of Co-operative society constituted a panel and exonerated him of all allegations levelled against him but, the defendant failed to accede to the report, filed an application at the Federal High Court and the matter was transferred to the Industrial Court.

He stated that the Industrial Court declared the interdiction as unlawful and he resumed on the 24th of December, 2018. He stated that after his interdiction he was forcefully moved out of the defendant’s premises and his, training manuals and his procurement specialist practice manual were all thrown out of his office and destroyed on the order of the defendant, sought amongst other for an order for the payment of the sum of (Naira equivalent) US$ 30,000,00, US $ 10,668.00 and E 800.00 being fees for tuition/ practice manual cost, 4 weeks 28 days Estacode and return ticket for the repeat training and certification he did at the ILO International Training Centre, in Turin Italy.

In defence, the defendant submitted that the Chief Registrar of cooperative societies equally looked into the matter but his findings were rejected by the National Universities Commission Staff Cooperative Society and challenged in Court for the purpose of being quashed. It pleaded that the judgment was on appeal.

The defendant stated that the suit of the claimant is incompetent that the Court lacks jurisdiction to entertain same on the grounds that the Writ of Summons and the statement of facts were not affixed with a legal practitioner’s seal, and the suit is statute-barred by the Public Officers Protection Act, and Limitation Act.

In reply, counsel submitted that the claimant’s case clearly falls within the exception of the Public Officers Protection Act that if the defendant has not destroyed his career for over 13 years and lost about four to five promotion, he should have been at par with his colleagues who are now Deputy Directors and Directors. That based on this, he arrived at the cumulative sum of N21,129.839.00 for the entire period covered and urged the Court to so hold.

Delivering judgment, the presiding Judge, Justice Oyewumi held that no Court should rely on technicalities to shut out a party before it, that the claimants’ case is neither barred by the limitation Act or the Public Officers Protection Act, dismissed the objection for lacking merit.

“However from the document before the Court, the Appeal has not been entered as there is nothing to show that the Registrar of the Court from which the appeal emanates has forwarded to the Registrar of the appellate Court a compiled Record of this Court and there is no suit Number yet. The import of this is that there is as yet no competent appeal against the decision of Hon. Justice Agbakoba. Therefore, this Court can decide on this claim and will not tread on the jurisdiction of the Court of Appeal to adjudicate on that suit.

“One would have expected that the defendant if so interested in the Cooperative issue, to refer the matter to the Chief Registrar of Cooperative, the body responsible by law to investigate and if the claimant was reported to the management of the defendant by the Chief Registrar of Cooperative to have misappropriated its funds, that is when the defendant would have intervened by setting up an investigatory inquiry. Rather, the defendant acted ultra vires of its powers by taking over the powers/usurping the duties of the Registrar of Cooperative.

“From the circumstances of this suit, it is clear that the claimant’s right to fair hearing was utterly breached by the defendant vide all the reasons stated supra.

“I, however, find no evidence on record to substantiate the claimant’s claim for special damages of N21,129,839. There is dearth of evidence on record on the part of the claimant to substantiate his claim for the above sum.”

The Nigerian Bar Association has withdrawn its invitation to Kaduna State Governor, Nasir el-Rufai, following protests from some lawyers.

The NBA said this in a tweet on Thursday via its Twitter handle @NigBarAssoc.

The tweet read, “The National Executive Committee of the Nigerian Bar Association at its ongoing meeting resolves that the invitation to the Kaduna State Governor, H.E. Nasir El-Rufai, by the 2020 Annual General Conference Planning committee be withdrawn and decision communicated to the Governor.”

A petition to stop the governor from attending the Annual General Conference which was started by a lawyer, Usani Odum, had garnered over 3,150 signatures on Change.Org as of 4 pm on Thursday.

In a separate letter titled, ‘Request to Withdraw the Offer of Platform at the 2020 Annual General Conference of the NBA to Mallam Nasir el-Rufai,’ addressed to the Chairman, Technical Committee on Conference Planning, NBA, Prof. Koyinsola Ajayi, some lawyers said the governor must not be allowed to speak at the conference.

The letter, which was signed by Silas Onu and Auta Nyada, listed 10 allegations against el-Rufai and his son, Bello, who is a Special Adviser to Kaduna Central lawmaker, Senator Uba Sani.

They faulted the NBA for inviting el-Rufai, citing his alleged poor human rights record and his inability to stop the killings, particularly in southern Kaduna.

The lawyers also referenced many controversial utterances of the governor, including a threat during the run-up to the general elections in 2019 that any foreigner that interfered in the poll would leave Nigeria in body bags.

The NBA virtual conference, which holds from August 24-26, 2020, is expected to have Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo and the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami (SAN), in attendance.

Others expected to speak at the event include former Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State, Governor Wike of Rivers State and a former Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesili.

The theme of the conference is: ‘Am I a Nigerian – A Debate on National Identity, the Indigeneship-Citizenship Conundrum.’

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on Thursday, August 20, 2020, has released a press statement to clear air on the news that the commission has started the operation stop and search around Lekki Area, Lagos State. This was disclosed in the press statement by the commission media and publicity team.

In their statement,  “the attention of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission( EFCC) has been drawn to some spurious news circulating in the social media, linking its Operatives with some contrived ” Stop and Search” operations around Lekki axis of Lagos State.

Going further in their statement, they said the commission has integrity and can never involve in such operation.

“We wish to state very clearly that our Operatives were not and can never be involved in such operations.

They enjoined the general public to disregard the new as it’s false and can be misleading.

“Members of the public are enjoined to ignore such insinuations.  EFCC is a professional law- enforcement agency and should not be linked with any traffic management operation on our roads.