Lecturer Sacked For Refusing To Vacate Her Office, Wins In Court 5 Years Later

A lecturer sacked by the University of Ibadan (UI), for refusing to vacate her office for another, has won her case in court after 5 years.

The National Industrial Court in Ibadan, on Monday, ordered the University of Ibadan to immediately reinstate Professor Adenike Ogunshe, whose appointment was terminated by the institution on June 14, 2016.

Ogunshe, who was a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Microbiology before her abrupt sack, got her employment terminated by the school for allegedly refusing to vacate her office to another one, which she alleged was not secure.

NAN report that Ogunshe, through her counsel, Mr Femi Aborisade, dragged the institution and its Council to court describing the termination as unlawful and prayed the court for reinstatement.

In his judgement, Justice John Peters, said that the University of Ibadan failed to comply with the rules and regulations guiding the employment relationship with respect to termination of Ogunshe’s appointment.

Peters said the issue of relocation of office that led to the alleged termination of the claimant’s appointment started in 2006 and was left hanging until 2013 when the claimant was issued a query.

According to the judge, the court found out that the issue was escalated by the claimant’s insistence that rules and regulations be followed in the appointment of Head of Department and students who did not attend classes being allowed to write final examinations against the known laid down rules and regulations of the institution.

Peters declared the termination of Ogunshe’s appointment by the institution as unlawful, null, void and of no effect for non-compliance with the applicable rules.

He ordered the immediate reinstatement of Ogunshe to her position as Senior Lecturer in the Department of Microbiology of the institution without loss of benefits, prerequisites of office, promotion and remunerations.

The judge further ordered the institution to pay Ogunshe a sum of N13,607,028 being her salary arrears from August 15, 2016, to the date of the judgment and also N200,000 as the cost of the proceedings.

“I order and direct the defendants to pay the claimant all her arrears of salaries from the date of termination of her appointment till the date of this judgment,” Peters said.