By Olusegun El-Suatini
The National Industrial Court of Nigeria (NICN) has dismissed an appeal brought before it by Daily Time of Nigeria PLC.
The presiding Judge, Justice Tijjani Mustapha, ruled that the appeal lacked merit. The appeal was in protest against an earlier judgement delivered in July 2018, by the NICN in favour of two Nigerian journalists – Nduka Uzuakpundu and Babatunde Scott – who had dragged the Daily Times to the NICN for unpaid salaries.
The judgment marks an end to a two-year, tedious struggle and rugged quest for justice by Uzuakpundu and Scott.
During the trial, the owner of Daily Time of Nigeria PLC, Mr. Fidelis Anosike, tried, but failed, through his counsel, Mr. Uche Awulu, to convince the NICN that Uzuakpunda and Scott were no employees of the Daily Times, and so their case again it should be dismissed.
The court ruled that given the evidence before it – letters of employment of Uzuakpundu and Scott, letters of wrongful termination of their appointments, under the pretext of re-organization of Daily Times of Nigeria PLC, the publishers of Daily Times, where Uzuakpundu and Scott worked and bank statements of their accounts – Uzuakpundu and Scott, who were represented at various times by counsels Tayo Odukola, Sam Ogueri and Mark Nosa Imonitie from Abope Chambers headed by Dr. Femi Aborishade – were legally employed by the Daily Times of Nigeria PLC.
A former Minister of Information, who craved anonymity, was of the opinion that “the judgment in favour of Uzuakpundu and Scott is a clear case of the triumph of good over evil. It was a victory of truth over falsehood. A well deserved efeat of an evil intent to muddy the waters of justice. All that in spite of the naked lies and brazen acts of dishonesty sworn to in nearly thirty paragraphs of an affidavit – especially by the General Manager of Daily Times of Nigeria PLC, one Mr. Olisa Egbunike, who styles himself as a Christian and seasoned journalist, as he unrepentantly connived with Mr. Fidelis Anosike, the publisher of the Daily Times, in his own false affidavit of a similar length, to the effect that Uzuakpundu and Scott were not employees of Daily Times of Nigeria PLC, and so their case should be struck out.”
Some sources at the Bureau Public Enterprise (BPE), Abuja, who craved anonymity, told this writer, on the line, soon after the judgment on January 21, 2019, that the agency had been following the suit filed against the Daily Times by Uzuakpundu and Scott, and they see the judgment as well deserved.
The sources – one a Manager and the other a Director – revealed that in recent times, the BPE had received nearly fifty (50) petitions – fifteen counter-signed by two former Managing Directors of the Daily Times, twenty counter-signed by three former National Presidents of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) and nine counter-signed by a former Minister of Information – from genuinely aggrieved Nigerian journalists concerning how Mr. Fidelis Anosike and his brother, Noel – alongside Mr. Olisa Egbunike, had been maltreating Nigerian journalists whom they employed to work for the Daily Times much to the criminal breach of the labour/industrial laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
In response to the plea in one of such petitions jointly written by fourteen journalists who are still being owed by the Daily Times, the BPE sources said they may have to draw the attention of His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari, Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo and Minister of Information and Culture, Mr. Lai Mohammed, to the criminal conduct of the publisher of Daily Times, Mr. Fidelis Anosike, in his indefensible refusal to pay them a back log of salaries; some close to twenty months.
The sources added that this move, designed, hopefully, to compel Mr. Fidelis Anosike to mend his ways and comply the rules and guidelines of BPE when it sold Daily Times of Nigeria PLC to him.
But, said the sources, “There are very strong indications at the Presidency that the criminal manner in which Mr. Fidelis Anosike has treated most Nigerians journalists is perceived as corruption per se; a practice that the Buhari administration frowns upon. “We fear that except there are convincing signs of repentance on the part of Mr. Fidelis Anosike – defraying the debt he owned about fifty (50) certified Nigerian journalists, who are members of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) – the Buhari administration may be compelled o stop the publication of the Daily Times.”
