Alleged illegal sack of General Secretary: Judge counsels NLC to Put its House in Order   Posted Wed Jan 18,2012

John Odah

The President of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria, Justice Babatunde Adejumo, today advised the leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) to “put its house in order” so as to present a stronger vanguard to effectively pursue the interest of its members.

Justice Adejumo, who presided over the suit filed by Comrade John Odah challenging the alleged termination of his appointment as General Secretary of the NLC and a claim of N500 million naira as damages for defamation of his character, stated that the NLC as a central labour organisation with several unions as affiliates must be able to put its house in order when things are going wrong.

Though  Justice Adejumo  was not speaking directly to the NLC President, who was present in court as the second defendant in the case, he admonished the NLC and all unionists to always explore the possibility of an amicable settlement so as not to fragment trade unions and as a result weaken them in the struggle for decent work environment or the right of workers. 

Justice Adejumo stated that since industrial courts everywhere in the world were set up to enhance smooth and harmonious labour relations so as to create the environment for economic wellbeing and development of society and not as a punitive institution, it was imperative for the court to draw the attention of the counsel on both sides as well as claimant and defendants in the suit to the provisions of Section 20 of the National Industrial Court Act (NICA) (2006). “I invoke the provisions of Section 20 of NICA (2006) and advise or encourage the parties to hasten amicable settlement of the dispute therein. Counsel on all sides are therefore encouraged to do their best so that the matter may be resolved amicably,” Justice Adejumo stated.

For the first time since the case was mentioned on Wednesday, November 30, 2011, all the defendants appeared before the court along with their legal representations which came from three different chambers. The Chambers of Mr. Tayo Oyetibo (SAN) represents the first and fourth defendants; that is, the NLC and Emma Ugboaja, the chambers of Mr Adetola (SAN) represent the second defendant, Abdulwaheed Omar while Mr Ayokunle Erim represents the 3rd defendant, Owei Lakemfa.

The embattled General Secretary of the NLC had on Wednesday, November 30, 2011 gone before the National Industrial Court sitting in Garki, Area 11 asking it to, among other things, make “a declaration that the purported termination of his appointment as General Secretary of NLC on the pretext of on-going re-organisation in Congress is a ruse, reckless, manifestly in bad faith, unlawful and illegal as well as a pungent anti-thesis of what Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) stands for and represents, and as such the letter ought to be set aside and/or invalidated”.

While January 18, 19 and 20, 2012 were set aside for accelerated hearing of the case, all the counsel to the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th defendants pleaded for more time to properly file their defence as they were not able to do so due to the industrial strike as a result of the withdrawal of subsidy. Justice Adejumo also urged the two parties to adopt and file written witnesses’ statements of claim and defence on oath so as to fast track the hearing and adjourned the case to Wednesday, February 29 and Thursday, March 1, 2012 for hearing.

Meanwhile, speaking after the adjournment of the matter, counsel to Comrade John Odah, Mr. Pius Akubo (SAN), said Justice Adejumo’s approach on the possible amicable resolution of the matter was a wise counsel. According to Mr. Akubo (SAN), “by Article Three of the constitution of the NLC, labour is obliged as its fundamental objectives to defend and promote the interest of its workers and to have underhandedly disengaged a foremost labour leader in the position of General Secretary of the congress is a bad precedent and therefore if the parties can come together to settle this matter amicably, the better for everybody”.

According to Mr. Akubo (SAN), the NLC ought to be an example, a role model in dealing with its employees. “Here is a man who headed the Secretariat in his capacity as the General Secretary and who has spent almost a quarter of a century in the union’s struggle and only for the President of the NLC to wake up one morning to ask the General Secretary to proceed on accumulated leave when he had converted the leave to cash payments. You can’t do that,” said the counsel.

He said his client is hopeful that with the renewed admonition of the court, reason would prevail so that they can come to terms amicably. Mr Akubo said any other step other than Comrade Odah’s re-instatement will affect labour’s capacity to confront government on wrong doings as it affects the interest of workers since it will lack any “moral justification to pursue that line of agitation anymore if it cannot show good example by treating its own workers in the area of fair hearing, equity, justice and fairness.”