The Court of Appeal, Abuja Division, on Tuesday, dismissed an application filed by Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) seeking to present fresh evidence in the N2.5 billion suit involving 110 disengaged university staff.
The appellants in this case are ABU, the Minister of Education, the Attorney-General of the Federation, and the Minister of Justice.
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In a suit marked CA/ABJ/ CV/476/2023, the ABU management, through its counsel, Musa Yahaya, asked the appellate court to allow them to adduce fresh evidence.
However, in response, the 110 former staff filed a counter-affidavit on 23 January 2025, urging the court to dismiss the motion.
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Delivering the ruling on Tuesday, the judge, O.O. Oyewumi, held that the appellants had ample opportunity to file a counter-affidavit and challenge the N2.5 billion computations during the lower court trial but failed to do so.
According to her, by not filing a counter-affidavit, the appellants left the court to decide the matter based on the available facts. The Court of Appeal, she said, will not reverse an opportunity a party neglected at trial.
She added that the appellants also failed to satisfy the conditions under Order 4 Rule 2 of the Court of Appeal Rules, which requires that the party must prove they were denied the opportunity to present the evidence during the initial trial.
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The court, therefore, refused and dismissed the motion.
Background
It is now 29 years after the staff’s dismissal, and they have still not been paid. Mr Yahaya, counsel for ABU management, in March, asked the court to admit the fresh evidence. Whereas counsel for the 110 disengaged staff, Adegboyega Kolade, asked the court to refuse the appellant/applicant prayers.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the appointment of 110 ABU staff was terminated in 1996. They approached the court in 2012, after the failure of the institution to implement the recommendations of various visitation panels, which recommended that they be reinstated and all their entitlements paid.
NAN also reports that 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 the proceedings, as they had filed an appeal at the Appeal Court in November 2018, contesting the 2015 judgment.
The Court of Appeal, on its part, on 24 May 2021, dismissed the appeal and affirmed the decision of the lower court.
The National Industrial Court on 27 January, through a ruling, made an absolute order in a garnishee proceeding ordering the CBN to pay the disengaged staff members.
But the judgment sum remains unpaid.
In November 2023, ABU invited the judgment creditors for a settlement meeting.
The meeting was convened at the university’s request after the former staff initiated legal moves to execute the judgment.
The meeting, however, ended in a deadlock. ABU blamed the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD) for failing to provide the complete data needed to process the payment. The former staff said PTAD failed to capture them properly.
Both sides were asked to report to the court by 11 December 2023, but no resolution has been reached.
READ ALSO: Eight staffers under probe over alleged neglect of accident victims – FMC Abuja
March appeal further delayed enforcement
ABU in March 2025 returned to court seeking permission to file fresh evidence.
That motion, now dismissed, further delayed the execution of the garnishee order. Though the National Industrial Court’s order remains valid, the judgment debt is yet to be fulfilled.
The court has yet to fix a new date for further proceedings.
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