The Court of Appeal on Friday affirmed the judgment against Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, over the more than N2.5 billion debt owed to 110 former staff members.
The university had disengaged the employees in 1996.
The appellate court further directed the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to immediately release the judgment sum to the affected staff, whose unlawful termination had earlier been nullified in the Nov. 30, 2015 decision of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria (NICN).
The court warned that failure to comply would expose the bank’s principal officers to disciplinary measures.
A three-member panel of the court issued the orders in two unanimous judgments delivered by Justice Okon Abang, who authored the lead decisions in both appeals.
The first ruling concerned the appeal marked CA/ABJ/CV/476/2023, filed by ABU, the Federal Ministry of Education (FME) and the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) against the Nov. 30, 2015 judgment.
The second decision related to the appeal marked CA/ABJ/CV/1064/2022, filed by the CBN, challenging the garnishee order absolute issued by the NICN on Jan. 27, 2022. The order directed the apex bank to pay the N2.5 billion judgment sum to the disengaged workers, led by Joseph Ekundayo, from ABU’s funds in its custody.
Justice Abang upheld the arguments of counsel to the disengaged staff, Adegbiyega Kolade, and resolved the three issues identified for determination against the appellants.
The court held that the appeal filed in 2023 against a judgment delivered in 2015 was an afterthought and rejected the appellants’ claim that they were denied fair hearing at the trial court.
K “Having resolved the three issues formulated by the appellants against them, this appeal is devoid of merit. It is accordingly dismissed.”
The court also awarded N5 million in costs against the appellants in favour of the 110 disengaged staff.
In its Nov. 30, 2015 judgment, the NICN had declared the disengagement of the workers unlawful, ordered their reinstatement and directed the payment of their salaries and entitlements, calculated at over N2.5 billion.
In the second judgment delivered on Friday, the Court of Appeal criticised the role played by the CBN in what it described as efforts by the original judgment debtors—ABU, the FME and the AGF—to frustrate enforcement of the judgment.
Justice Abang resolved the two issues in the appeal against the CBN.
He rejected the apex bank’s claim that the NICN lacked jurisdiction to entertain the garnishee proceedings and issue the garnishee order absolute.
The court ruled that the NICN had the necessary jurisdiction, as the garnishee process was incidental to enforcing the Nov. 30, 2015 judgment in the substantive employment dispute.
Justice Abang observed that the judgment creditors had no claim against the CBN in the garnishee proceedings to justify the bank’s position that the Federal High Court was the proper forum.
He questioned why the CBN chose to spend public funds on an appeal despite having the money to satisfy the judgment after the trial court made the garnishee order absolute.
He said: “The CBN ought to have released that money to the judgment creditors when the judgment was not set aside or stayed. Why is CBN holding the brief for the judgment debtors?
“The conduct of the CBN in this case is reckless and condemnable to the extreme. There is no reason for the CBN to have filed this appeal. Its conduct is oppressive.
“It is not the duty of the garnishee to play the role of an advocate for the judgment debtors by shielding them from the effect of the judgment,” he said.
Justice Abang also faulted CBN’s lawyer, Sen. Ita Enang, for accepting the brief instead of advising his client to comply with the order.
He added: “Counsel ought to have advised the appellant on the futility of filing this appeal or withdraw his services if his client insisted on proceeding with the appeal.
“Since 2018 when the order nisi was made, the CBN has held on to the money and has been trading with it at the expense of the judgment creditors. This is man’s inhumanity to man.”
Justice Abang said the CBN was wrong to support the original judgment debtors—ABU, the FME and the AGF—in preventing the workers from enjoying the fruits of the judgment.
He also dismissed the bank’s argument that the workers needed the AGF’s consent before initiating garnishee proceedings against it.
Relying on the Supreme Court decision in CBN versus Interstella Communications Limited, Justice Abang held that where the AGF was a party to the original suit, his consent was not required before commencing garnishee proceedings.
He dismissed the appeal and directed the CBN to release the judgment sum to the workers without delay.
Justice Abang warned that failure by the bank to comply would attract disciplinary action against its principal officers.
The court also awarded N5 million in costs against the CBN in favour of the disengaged ABU staff.
Other members of the panel, Justices Adebukola Banjoko and Eberechi Wike, concurred with the lead judgments in both appeals.
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