The Appeal Court sitting in Ado Ekiti, Ekiti State capital, on Monday, has ordered the Ekiti State University (EKSU), Ado Ekiti, to reinstate 85 non-teaching staff members sacked by the institution in December 2019.
Recall that the management of the EKSU had on December 5, 2019, disengaged over 900 of its workforce for alleged certificate forgery, irregular appointment and overage, among other sundry allegations.
The disengaged EKSU staff subsequently dragged the university authority to the National Industrial Court (NIC) in Akure and got a judgment nullifying their sack. However, the university authority was yet to obey the court judgment.
Some of the affected workers have approached the Court of Appeal Court sitting in Ado Ekiti, which ordered the reinstatement of the disengaged staff.
The judge, Tunde Awotoye, also gave the university a 30-day ultimatum to pay the reinstated workers their salaries, emoluments, and allowances from the date of their unlawful disengagement till date.
In the judgement delivered on Monday, April 4, the court also directed the university to pay the workers the three months salary they were being owed before they unlawfully disengaged.
The claimants, Mary Fajembola and 84 others, had through their lawyer, O. O Ayenakin, filed their suit with the university, its Vice-Chancellor and the Governing Council, joined as the defendants.
The plaintiffs, who claimed to be non-teaching staff members of the institution, alleged in their suit that their appointments were terminated on December 5, 2019, without any offence.
They added that the procedure adopted in disengaging them from service was unknown to their conditions of service.
Delivering judgment, Tunde Awotoye, held that the disengagement violated the regulations governing the service of the senior/junior staff of the university.
“The implication of all these is that since the claimants’ employment enjoys statutory flavour, the claimants are entitled to an order of reinstatement and any amount owed them before their disengagement and thereafter till retirement and I so order,” the judge ruled.
Reports has it that the Appeal Court sitting in Ado Ekiti, on March 25, 2022, had ordered the Ekiti State University (EKSU), Ado Ekiti, Ekiti State, to reinstate 32 technologists members sacked by the institution in December 2019.
The court also directed the university to pay the workers the three months salary they were being owed before they unlawfully disengaged.
Ojelabi, the publisher of Freelanews, is an award winning and professionally trained mass communicator, who writes ruthlessly about pop culture, religion, politics and entertainment.
