Africa
AN aggrieved staff of the ECOWAS Commission, who was demoted on the basis of the report of a disciplinary board that indicted him for fraud, has instituted a suit at the Community Court of Justice asking for a total of 55 million dollars in damages for defamation, mental distress and the infringement of his fundamental human rights.
Nnamdi Chukwu, a senior staff in the Commission’s Finance Department said that his ‘unlawful, unwarranted and capricious demotion at first to Grade Level P4/1 and subsequently to Grade level P5/1 on the basis of an invalid, null and void conviction for fraud,’ by an ‘improperly constituted disciplinary board’ violated the provisions of the ECOWAS Staff Regulations and African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
The plaintiff is demanding among others, his reinstatement/restitution of all his withheld entitlements and wages applicable to Grade Level P5/2; an order of the Court compelling the defendants to pay 25 million USD as punitive and exemplary damages for defamation, another 25 million USD for mental distress suffered while the remaining five (5) million USD is for violation of his fundamental right of appeal.
In the initiating application filed by his Counsel, Ikechukwu Ikogwu, the plaintiff urged the court to set aside the verdict of the disciplinary board which indicted him for fraud despite the lack of evidence of intent to defraud, personal gratification and lack of evidence of infraction of the neither the Financial Regulations nor the Tenders Code.
Chukwu, blamed his ordeal on a former Special Representative of the President of the Commission to Mali who in a confidential report as part of a response to a query by the President, accused the plaintiff and other staff of the office of being responsible for the financial infractions identified in the office by the Financial Controller that was the basis of the query.
The plaintiff said that in response to the confidential report, the first defendant constituted an investigation team in October 2015 to investigate the financial transactions at the centre of the indictment by the financial controller and the content of the confidential report of the special representative.
“After investigation, the team found that the special representative did in fact approve the financial transactions he accused the Plaintiff in the Confidential Letter to the President wherein he denied consent or knowledge of the transactions,’ the plaintiff said in documents submitted to the Court.
Furthermore, the plaintiff said that despite being absolved of the allegations of the special representative by the team, the President ‘curiously issued the Plaintiff a query and constituted an ill-composed Disciplinary Board which recommended sanctions against him.’
Relying on certain provisions of the ECOWAS Staff Regulations and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Right, the plaintiff claimed that the defendants breached his rights as guaranteed in the legal instruments.
He claimed that his trial and conviction by an improperly constituted disciplinary board that lacked the competence to adjudicate and convict in criminal offenses such as fraud, made him a victim of Invalid conviction and unlawful demotion thereby contravening his right to presumption of innocence until proven guilty by a competent court.
The plaintiff equally alleged the violation of his rights to fair hearing and appeal, noting that based on his appeal for the reversal of the demotion in a 21st February memorandum to the first defendant, the Commission set up an ad hoc committee on litigation which recommended that he be placed on a professional staff grade below his original position despite his presentation to the committee.
Furthermore, he claimed a subsequent appeal through the administrative channel of ECOWAS in 2017 was impeded while others on 14th June 2019 to the Commissioner, Human Resources and subsequently to the first defendant through the Commissioner for Finance, were unsuccessful.
Thereafter, he wrote through his counsel to the first defendant as well as the Vice President but also received no response.
He contended that his conviction by the defendants and the resulting demotion have tarnished his record of over 30 years of meritorious service to the Commission in the estimation of his colleagues who are aware of the verdict of fraud and demotion. Moreover, he said that he had no previous disciplinary procedure record, neither from his superior nor from the Head of Human Resources.
He averred that his conviction and demotion caused him mental and emotional stress and impeded his career progression and that he approached the ECOWAS Court after exhausting available internal mechanisms for seeking re-dress without resolution or obtaining a remedy.
The plaintiff urged the Court to declare his demotion invalid since the preceding process was improper and in violation of (Article 69 (a)) of the ECOWAS Staff Regulations.
He also sought declarations of the Court that the findings of the investigation set up by the defendants exonerated the plaintiff, that the disciplinary board set up by the defendants was improperly constituted and violated the provisions of the ECOWAS Staff Regulations (for a joint disciplinary board) and lacked the competence to adjudicate on such criminal offence as fraud.
He urged the Court to declare that no evidence proved that the plaintiff breached the defendant’s Financial Regulations or Tender Code and no proof of intent to defraud, and that his consequent conviction and demotion amounted to defamation.
He further urged the Court to order the defendants to issue a written apology and publish the same on notice boards and other visible places within the second defendant’s office complex and order the defendants to expunge all documents or records relating to his undue indictment, conviction and demotion from the plaintiff’s personnel and personal files.
The plaintiff, a professional staff who is the Head of Division in the second Defendant’s Finance Department, joined the service of the Commission in September 1989 and served as an adviser on Administrative and Management matters to the ECOWAS Special Representative in Mali.
No date has been fixed for the hearing.
– June 12, 2020 @ 6:46 GMT /
Tags: Ikechukwu Ikogwu Nnamdi Chukwu Staff sues ECOWAS for defamation and violation of his rights
