Court orders Nigerian govt to pay arrears of salaries of 244 soldiers dismissed in 2016

Fri, Jun 26, 2020
By publisher
2 MIN READ

Judiciary

THE Federal Republic of Nigeria was on Thursday, June 25, ordered by the ECOWAS Court Justice to pay the arrears of the salaries of 244 soldiers who were dismissed in 2016 through a process that was determined by the Court in an earlier judgement to have violated their right to work and fair hearing.

Delivering a supplementary judgement to its judgement of May 15, 2019, the court ordered the government to pay all arrears of monthly allowances and salaries and other entitlements of the Applicants up to January 2016.

In the judgement which was delivered by Justice Keikura Bangura, the judge rapporteur, the Court said it came to the decision having heard the parties, considered the documents and reviewed its earlier judgment and that ‘the judgment of the Court ECW/CCJ/JUD/21/19 delivered on 15th May 2019 is hereby supplemented with an additional paragraph no (vi).’

The Court however rejected the request of the soldiers for an order directing the government to reinstate them as ‘the Court did not omit to give a decision on reinstatement of the applicants in the original judgment.’

In the supplementary application lodged before the Court on 14th June 2019, the applicants had asked the Court for an order mandating the Respondent to immediately reinstate them, including to their respective ranks, having found that their dismissal without arraignment, prosecution and sentence by a duly constituted Court Martial is illegal, null and void.

They also asked the Court for an order directing the Respondent to pay their monthly salaries and other allowances from the whole of 2015 and such other months until the date the judgement is enforced.

Also on the three member panel for the case were Justices Gberi-Be Ouattara (presiding) and Dupe Atoki.

– June 26, 2020 @ 17:43 GMT |

Tags: