By Glory Abuh-Adejoh
The National Industrial Court, has fixed Jan.17 for report of settlement in the suit between Ahmadu Bello University, ( ABU), Zaria and its 110 disengaged staff members.
The suit which bordered on judgment sum of N2.5 billion came up on Tuesday before Justice Rakiya Haastrup.
When the matter was called, the judgment creditors, the disengaged staff counsel, Mr Femi Adedeji informed the court that on the last adjourned date , Oct. 18, parties stated their intention to amicably resolve the matter out of court.
Adedeji further submitted that parties had agreed to have a joint meeting with committee set up by the institution and that of his clients.
He therefore proceeded to ask for an adjournment to enable parties meet and return with a report of settlement.
ABU’s counsel, Mr Abubakar Is’haq, on his part replied in the affirmative with Adedeji’s submission and added that he met with Adedeji earlier and they both agreed to the meeting in order to resolve some of the contending issues.
The court asked reason issues to be resolved were some and not all.
Is’haq in response said that he had filed a motion stating that the institution had released some money to the Central Bank of Nigeria ( CBN).
In addition, the counsel reiterated that Adedeji needed to respond to the motion by way of counter to raise some of the contending issues.
Adedeji on his part informed the court that one of the issue was that aside the monetary claim, another issue was on reinstatement of his clients as directed by the court in its judgment, which the institution had not complied with.
The judge in her ruling directed that Adedeji respond to the motion, urged parties to meet and adjourned the matter until Jan. 17,2023, for report of settlement.
The News Agency of Nigeria ( NAN), reports that the court had in its earlier ruling on May 17 ordered CBN to pay the sum of N2.5 billion in a garnishee proceeding order nissi which was made order absolute.
This was after CBN sought for stay of execution, which was granted on the condition that the judgment sum be paid into an interest yielding account opened in the court Registrar’s name.
The court clarified that for the stay of execution application to take effect, that CBN must comply with the directive of the court by making the deposit of the judgment sum.
NAN also reports that the appointments of 110 ABU staff were terminated in 1996.
They approached the court in 2012, after failure of the institution to implement the recommendations of various visitation panels, which recommended that they be reinstated and all their entitlements paid.
The court ruled in favour of the staff in 2015 and ordered the university to reinstate them and pay their entitlements, which amounted to N2.5 billion.
Non-compliance with the court judgment necessitated the garnishee order on the institution’s bank accounts in 2017.
However, when the garnishee proceeding was ongoing, the judgment debtors filed for a stay of proceeding as they had filed an appeal before Appeal Court in Nov.2018, contesting the 2015 judgment.
The Court of Appeal on its part on May 24,2021, dismissed the appeal and affirmed the decision of the lower court.
The NICN then on Jan. 27 through a ruling made an order absolute in a garnishee proceeding ordering the CBN the pay the disengaged staff (NAN)
