UBA Pension Custodian to pay N7.4m as damages to sacked staff

A National Industrial Court in Port-Harcourt, Rivers State, has asked the UBA Pensions Custodian Limited to pay N7,453,991,05 million the for the unlawful sack of its Senior Custody Trainee, Mr. Celestine Igwe Chibuzor, being the claimant’s withheld salary for July and the shortfalls in the payments for August to November 2020, and general damages.

The court, presided over by Justice P. I. Hamman equally described the action of UBA Pensions Custodian Limited as wrongful and unlawful.

The judge ordered that the terms of the judgment must be complied with within 30 days from the day of the judgment, failing which it shall attract interest at 10% per annum until it is completely liquidated.

It would be recalled that the claimant, Celestine, through his counsel, V. N. Ayogu, in a suit numbered NICN/PHC/22/2021, had asked the court for the following: “A declaration that the suspension of the claimant by the defendant was done without the due process of law and therefore liable to be set aside.

“A declaration that the termination of the employment of the claimant by the defendant for an offence the claimant knows absolutely nothing about is unlawful, wrongful, unjustifiable, unwarranted and carries with it a stigma that has and/or is capable of negatively affecting the employment chances of the claimant.

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During the trial of the suit, the claimant told the court that he was employed by the defendant as a Custody Trainee on September 12, 2012, and rose to the position of Senior Custody Trainee, until his employment was terminated on December 9, 2020, when he was unceremoniously disengaged from the employ of the company without requisite notice given to him by the defendant.

As a result, he prayed the court to grant all the reliefs sought against the defendant.

But UBA Pensions Custodian Limited through its lawyer, O. Wali (SAN), urged the court to dismiss the claimant’s suit for want of proof.

In handing down his judgment, Justice Hamman held that “In the final result, the claimant’s case succeeds in part. The lone issue is resolved in favour of the claimant, and the court hereby declares and orders as follows: “It is hereby declared that the termination of the claimant’s employment is wrongful.

“The defendant is hereby ordered to pay the claimant the sum of N954,026.65 as the balance of his withheld salary for July and the shortfalls in the payments for August to November 2020.

“The defendant is hereby ordered to pay the claimant the sum of N6, 499,964.4 calculated at the rate of N270,831.85 as salary per month in exhibit CW1Q 24 months which is equivalent of two years’ salary as general damages for the wrongful termination of the claimant’s employment.

“The terms of this judgment shall be complied with within 30 days from today, failing which it shall attract interest at 10 per cent per annum until it is completely liquidated.

“Judgment is entered accordingly. No order as to cost”.