The National Industrial Court of Nigeria in Abuja on Thursday ordered the Central Bank of Nigeria to pay a ₦620,000 fine for stalling proceedings in the suits filed by 62 former staff members challenging their disengagement.
Justice Osatohanmwen Obaseki-Osaghae issued the order after counsel for the former employees, Ola Olanipekun (SAN), complained that the apex bank’s late filing of a fresh application had forced an unnecessary adjournment in a matter scheduled for hearing.
The 62 former staff, who filed separate suits now pending before the court, are urging the NICN to nullify their termination letters dated May 23, 2024, which were issued under the heading “Re-Organisation”.
They contend that the action violated the CBN Act 2007 and the bank’s internal human resource policies, rendering the sack unlawful and void.
The claimants are seeking reinstatement to their former or equivalent positions, payment of all outstanding salaries and entitlements, and an order setting aside the termination entirely.
Their counsel has also applied for the consolidation of the multiple suits.
The lawsuits have had earlier procedural complications.
In 2024, the President of the NICN, Justice Benedict Kanyip, recused himself after discovering that a lawyer in the CBN’s consortium of counsel, from D.D. Dodo & Co., is his in-law.
The disengaged workers, many of whom helped establish the CBN’s now-defunct Economic Intelligence Unit, claim they were unjustly targeted despite the unit’s significant achievements.
They cite investigations into the P&ID $11 billion arbitration, recovery of ₦3.18 billion concealed by a bank agent, and probes into gaming companies involved in massive, unauthorised foreign exchange repatriation.
They maintain that their termination was punitive, arbitrary, and designed to disband a unit credited with critical financial intelligence successes.
At Thursday’s proceedings, Olanipekun told the court that parties were ready to proceed with the substantive originating summons and the CBN’s pending preliminary objection when the bank suddenly introduced a new motion filed on November 26, and served that same morning, seeking to convert the case from an originating summons to a writ of summons on the grounds that facts were in dispute.
“It is important to say that we were served with this application this morning,” he said.
He argued that, contrary to CBN’s submission in its motion, the facts in the instant case are perfectly within the rules of hearing it via the originating summons.
He prayed the court to disregard the CBN’s application so that the case could proceed accordingly.
Olanipekun, who said the case involved 62 claimants, described the application as a deliberate setback aimed at delaying the matter and asked the court for a cost of ₦10,000 per claimant, totalling ₦620,000.
“We ask for a conservative cost of N10,000 per person and a total of N620,000.
“This is because this matter was slated for hearing and the claimants and their counsel are diligently ready to proceed so that we can address the injustice done to the claimants,” Olanipekun said.
Responding, CBN’s lawyer, Wilson Inam (SAN), told the court that he filed an application, dated November 26, seeking an order of the court to convert the claimants’ originating summons to a writ of summons because the facts are in dispute.
“I apologise for filing it just yesterday and for serving my learned brother this morning in court,” he said.
