The National Industrial Court (NIC) in Lagos has declared as illegal and wrongful the termination of the appointment of Bayo Alabidun by the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) and ordered it to pay his full salary from October 4, 2011 to May 29, 2015.
The payment is to be made within 30 days from the date of judgment.
Alabidun was a General Manager in the legal department of FAAN.
Justice Benedict Kanyip held that his sudden retrenchment on October 4, 2011 was wrongful and illegal. He ordered FAAN to pay him N50,000 as costs; and failure to pay the damages and the salary arrears “shall attract interest at 10 per cent per annum.”
However, the court held that Alabidun did not prove that he remains an employee of FAAN even though “the reasons given by the defendants for the disengagement were not justified, and the signatory of the disengagement letter has not shown to be the board or managing director of FAAN, the employer of the claimant.”
The court held that although his disengagement from service was wrongful his employment ended the day it was terminated, regardless of the fact that the evidence tendered by FAAN did not justify the claim of re-organisation on which the termination was based.
Kanyip said: “Throughout the submissions of the defendants, I did not read anywhere where it was stated what nature of re-organisation was, other than that it is in line with the Transformation Agenda of the government and reform of the aviation sector.
“I repeat once again, I cannot blindly use the word reform or re-organisation as justification without stating what it entails and its components.
“The defendants appeared to have simply found the word convenient to use and so that to them is sufficient justification.
“To be such, the defendants must prove the need for the reform or re-organisation, its component parts and how they succeeded in doing that in regards to the case at hand.”
In disengaging Alabidun from his employment, Kanyip asked, “was the office he occupied scrapped in order to justify the re-organisation? The defendants did not tell the court.
“If anything, Exhibit MBA5 in paragraph 2 had even asked the claimant to hand over the affairs of his unit to the deputy manager, legal services, presupposing thereby that the office of the general manager, legal, was still intact.
“All of this means that the defendants have not succeeded in justifying the reasons for which the claimant was disengaged, and I so find and hold!”
Other reliefs Alabidun sought included:
• A declaration that he is still an employee of FAAN until his appointment ceases through the due process of law and in accordance with the staff conditions of service governing his contract of employment with FAAN.
• A declaration that the letter dated October 4, 2011 purporting to disengage him from his public service position or as a public servant is unconstitutional, unlawful, null, void, and of no effect whatsoever.
• Damages of N1 billion for abuse of office by FAAN “in unlawfully interfering” with his employment “as a public servant.”
FAAN averred that Alabidun was relieved of his position along with others who “did not fit into the Transformation Agenda in the aviation sector of the current administration.”