The Central Bank of Nigeria may soon face fierce legal battles as some of the recently disengaged members of staff have approached the National Industrial Court of Nigeria, Abuja Judicial Division, to challenge their “unjust” termination of service by the apex bank.
It would be recalled that in May this year, the CBN carried out a mass sack of its senior officers, Directors, Deputy Directors and Assistants Directors, among others under the re-organization policy of the current CBN Governor, Olayemi Michael Cardorso, a development that has not gone down well with the affected persons whose sack had equally generated a lot mixed reactions from members of the public at the time.
Dissatisfied with what they called ‘CBN’s unlawful act’, some of the victims through their counsel, Olawale Olanipekun, SAN, approached the Industrial Court for redress of the ‘illegal’ treatment by the nation’s apex bank of which they are making various demands running into millions of naira.
Part of the relief sought by the claimants is reinstatement and general damages caused by the Defendant within the time under review.
They are contending that the termination of their appointments contravened the provision of section 14 of the Central Bank of Nigeria Act 2007 and Articles 6,4,3(a) of Human Resource Policies and Procedure Manual (HRPPM).
Said the claimants:Â “We urge your Lordship to be guided by the decision of the Supreme Court in the case of Marine Management Associates Inc.& ANOR vs National Marine Authority (2012) LPELR-20618(SC) where the Apex Court held thus: “The case is indeed well settled that in a case of breach of contract, which is what the present case is, the assessment of the damages is calculated on the basis of the loss was either in the contemplation of the contract or is an unavoidable consequence of the breach.
“The fact that the damages as in the present case are difficult to assess does not disentitle a claimant to compensation for loss sustained from Defendant’s conduct of breach of contract. Also the fact that the amount of such loss cannot be precisely ascertained, does not deprive a claimant of all remedy as stated by this Court in Nzeribe vs Dave Engineering Co.Ltd (1994) 8NWLR (P361) 124 at 147.”
With reference to one of the claimants, Olanipekun prayed the court for: 1) “An order of this Honourable Court that the Defendant shall pay forthwith all monthly salaries and allowances that the Claimant would have earned in the course of his service/employment, being the sum of (N178,386,127.00) or such other sums in that regard, from the effective date of unlawful termination of his appointment up and until his due date of lawful retirement on 4th August, 2033.
2) “A declaration of this Honorable Court that the Claimant’s employment with the Defendant, evinced by letter Ref:PERS/CDEV/AP68/02/43 cannot be arbitrarily terminated and without recourse to the terms of the employment/appointment, the Defendant’s Human Resource Policies and Procedure Manual and/or observance of due process of law.
3) “An order of this Honorable Court setting aside the purported termination of the Claimant’s employment vide letter titled ‘Re-organization’ dated 24th May, 2024, for being arbitrary, unlawful, null and void, and
4) “An order of this Honorable Court that the Defendant shall reinstate the claimant to the position of assistant Director or other higher position, all monthly salaries, allowances and other emoluments/entitlements which he would have earned if his employment had not been unlawfully terminated, being amount of N1,621, 455.70 calculated monthly and evidenced by his salary payment; and/or such other monies in that regards as this current or subsequent promotion/grades would be entitled up and until the date of the judgment.”
Over 200 members of staff drawn from across various states of the federation were in May sacked by the CBN “without any satisfactory reasons” as most of the letters only carried “Re-Organization” indicating that their services were no longer needed as a result of the “re-organization” of the apex bank.
