By Mary Donatus (Correspondent Bauchi)
About 183 former political office holders that served under the immediate past governor of Bauchi State, Mallam Isa Yuguda, have dragged the state government to the National Industrial Court of Nigeria over unpaid severance gratuity totalling over N600 million.
One of the the aggrieved former aides, Dalhatu Ibrahim Ningi, a former Senior Special Assistant, Protocol, to ex-governor Yuguda, who spoke with journalists at the court premises in Bauchi, on Wednesday, shortly after the case was mentioned before presiding
Judge, Justice Waziri Agbe, said they sued the state government to claim their
rights.
Ningi, who is the Chairman, Forum of Former Political Office Holders,
said: “We met the state government several times and we have written
to them several times to pay us our severance gratuity.
“They promised us several times and gave us letters that they were
definitely going to pay but up till now they have not paid us and they
didn’t call for any settlement between us and them. That is why we are
here today (Wednesday) with our lawyer to claim our rights.”
The counsel to the plaintiff, Barrister Aniekan Mendie, said his clients are
disenchanted with the development saying it was capable of
creating social tension within the polity.
He said: “It is better the government comes to their aid and settles
because this is a claim fixed by law. We have a gazette fixing it and
they have no defence against the claim before the court.”
On the adjournment of the case to December 7, for hearing, Barrister
Aneikan said, “We are optimistic that the new judge who has just been
posted is proactive. He is ready to hear us. So we have faith in the court because that is the only place we can run to ventilate our grievance as far as this claim is concerned. We
expect that on December 7, our matter will be
heard and justice will come in the end.
“The case is just about severance gratuity which has not been paid. We
have written several letters to that effect and the government still
dodges and for a long time didn’t file anything in defence of the
suit but just few days back, we saw them trying to put some papers together. We are not bothered. We want them to join issues with us to see whether we are entitled to these claims or not.”
Reacting, counsel to the state government, Barrister Ibn
Idris, Director, Civil Litigations, in the state Ministry of Justice,
said it was true that some former aides of ex-governor Isa Yuguda have
dragged the state government to court over alleged severance
gratutity.
“For you to get a clear picture of what their claim is and what our response is, I think you have to refer to the processes we filed in exchange. They have served us with their claims
and we have served them the government side of the defence. I advise
you refer to the court processes since the matter is in court.”
“The former aides claimed that they are entitled to furniture allowance and referred to the relevant law. We on our part said they are not, even if they are, there are certain
things that must be considered as provided for by the law.
“I don’t want to go into details because the matter is before the court and it
will be prejudicial for me to start discussing it before the court
starts making any pronouncements. We are waiting for the court to
decide and after that either side will determine what it gets,” he said.