FOR unlawfully terminating the appointment of its Senior Custody Trainee, Mr Celestine Igwe Chibuzor, the UBA Pensions Custodian Limited, has been ordered to pay the sum of Seven Million, Four Hundred and Fifty-Three Thousand, Nine Hundred and Ninety-One, Five Kobo (N7, 453, 991, 05) only to the affected staff.
Specifically, the Port-Harcourt, Rivers State division of the National Industrial Court directed the UBA Pensions Custodian Limited to pay the said sum for the unlawful act, being the claimant’s withheld salary for July and the shortfalls in the payments for August to November 2020, and general damages.
The court, presided over by Justice P. I. Hamman, equally described the action of UBA Pensions Custodian Limited as wrongful and unlawful.
The judge ordered that the terms of the judgment must be complied with within 30 days from the day of the judgment, failing which it shall attract interest at 10% per annum until it is completely liquidated.
It would be recalled that the claimant, Celestine, through his counsel, V. N. Ayogu, in a suit numbered NICN/PHC/22/2021, had asked the court for the following:
“A declaration that the suspension of the claimant by the defendant was done without the due process of law and therefore liable to be set aside.
“A declaration that the termination of the employment of the claimant by the defendant for an offence the claimant knows absolutely nothing about is unlawful, wrongful, unjustifiable, unwarranted and carries with it a stigma that has and/or is capable of negatively affecting the employment chances of the claimant.
“An order setting aside the unlawful suspension and termination of the employment of the claimant by the defendant same having been done outside the laid down procedure guiding the employment relationship between the claimant and the defendant.
“The sum of N2,084,787.32, being and representing the balance of the claimant’s full six months’ salary from July-December, 2020, 13th-month salary, one month salary in lieu of notice, money wrongly deducted from the claimant by the defendant as tax liability and leave encashment benefits due to the claimant.
“Interest calculated at 21 per cent per annum on the said total sum of N2, 084, 787.32 million, being and representing the balance of the claimant’s full six (6) months’ salary from July-December, 2020, 13th-month salary, one month salary in lieu of notice, money wrongly deducted from the claimant by the defendant as tax liability and leave encashment benefits due to the claimant from July 2020, till judgment is delivered in this case and thereafter interest calculated at 10 per cent per annum on the judgment sum until liquidation thereof.
“The sum of N20 million, being and representing damages for the stigma, troubles, inhumane treatment, punitive and unfair and discriminatory labour practices unjustifiably meted out on the Claimant by the defendant.
“The sum of N2.3 million, only, being and representing Legal Practitioners’ fees for legal letters and prosecution of this suit.
“An order directing the defendant to give the claimant an opportunity to resign from the defendant as against the unwarranted punitive sanction of termination which carries with it the stigma of wrongdoing or malfeasance, the claimant being innocent and having nothing to do with the frauds that led to the termination of his appointment.
“An order of the court directing the defendant to give a positive written reference as it relates to the claimant in the event that a prospective employer requests the same from the defendant with respect to the claimant, the claimant having meritoriously served the defendant for more than eight years.”
During the trial of the suit, the claimant told the court that he was employed by the defendant as a Custody Trainee on 12 September 2012, and rose to the position of Senior Custody Trainee, until his employment was terminated on 9th December 2020, when he was unceremoniously disengaged from the employ of the company without requisite notice given to him by the defendant.
He stated that on 6th July 2020, he was summoned, alongside other staff members of the defendant to the UBA Group Head Office, Marina Lagos, by the Fraud and Forensic Investigation Department of the group for questioning, where he was officially informed that sometimes in March, April, May and June 2020, some alleged fraudulent withdrawals were made on a certain account number 1015872219 UPCL/PENSIONS Alliance Rsa Reconciliation A/C with the defendant, with an addition that he was then interrogated for about two hours by fraud and forensic investigators after which he was instructed alongside four (4) other staff members of the defendant to proceed to the Police Station (Lion Building) at Marina, Lagos for further questioning.
The claimant who further stated that he was questioned, made to write an extra-judicial statement and eventually detained till the following day, only to be released on bail the following day, after being questioned by the Police, argued that on 13 July 2020, he was again summoned by the Head, Human Resources, and upon getting to the office he was handed a letter of indefinite suspension without pay, and he calmly informed the Head, Human Resources that the account in question was not under his watch.
The claimant further posited that a few days after the letter of the indefinite suspension was handed to him, he was again called by the same Head, Human Resources to come to the office from where he was asked to report to the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (SCIID), Panti, Lagos State, for further investigation.
While informing the court that he honoured the directive and went to the SCIID, Panti, Lagos, where he was once again extensively questioned by the police, and after carefully examining the facts presented, the police asked him to go.
The claimant pleads further that on 6 August 2020, he was once again summoned to the office by the Head, Human Resources of the defendant and asked to proceed to Force Headquarters, Abuja for further interrogation with respect to the matter, adding that at great expense and discomfort, he proceeded to the FCIID, Abuja and after over five (5) days of intense interrogation by the police, he was exonerated and asked to go as he was not in any way found culpable in the alleged fraud.
He said he was invited again by the defendant on 17 September 2020, to face a Disciplinary Committee (DC) set up by the firm to further investigate the alleged fraud, and he honoured the invitation and appeared before the panel where he maintained his innocence and pleaded with the committee to review his case.
He stated that the disciplinary committee concluded its investigation without the firm notifying him of the outcome of the investigation and that while he was still waiting and hoping that his case would be reviewed by the management of the defendant, he was shocked when he was called to the office and handed a letter of termination of his appointment on 9 December 2020, after about six (6) months of being left in the wilderness by the defendant over an offence he knows absolutely nothing about.
The claimant further told the court that from the process flow of the defendant’s operations, he did not have any interface with the said account number: 1015872219 UPCL/PENSIONS Alliance Rsa Reconciliation A/c or the persons managing the said account, and therefore was not in any way involved with the said account, and could not have known what transpired in the said account.
As a result, he prayed the court to grant all the reliefs sought against the defendant.
But UBA Pensions Custodian Limited, through its lawyer, O. Wali (SAN), urged the court to dismiss the claimant’s suit for want of proof.
In handing down his judgment, Justice Hamman held that “In the final result, the claimant’s case succeeds in part. The lone issue is resolved in favour of the claimant, and the court hereby declares and orders as follows:
“It is hereby declared that the termination of the claimant’s employment is wrongful.
“The defendant is hereby ordered to pay the claimant the sum of N954,026.65 as the balance of his withheld salary for July and the shortfalls in the payments for August to November 2020.
“The defendant is hereby ordered to pay the claimant the sum of N6, 499,964.4 calculated at the rate of N270,831.85 as salary per month in exhibit CW1Q 24 months which is equivalent of two years’ salary as general damages for the wrongful termination of the claimant’s employment.
“The terms of this judgment shall be complied with within 30 days from today, failing which it shall attract interest at 10 per cent per annum until it is completely liquidated.
“Judgment is entered accordingly. No order as to cost”.
Eighteen-Eleven Media