The Court of Appeal, Abuja division, on Wednesday dismissed a motion seeking leave to restore a dismissed appeal meant to invalidate its judgment that affirmed recall of 181 sacked Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) staff.
Justice Teni Hassan held that such move could hurt the judiciary, adding that the court would not overrule itself.
Hassan said the court, having gone through all the issues raised in the application, was left with the only option to dismiss it.
โThis motion filed by NSCDC with intent to restore a dismissed appeal is simply academic. The motion lacks merit and hereby dismissed.
โThis courtโs judgment on this matter delivered on July 18, 2016 stands,โโ she held.
The other appellants were the Immigration and Prisons Service Board.
The lost appeal was filed NSCDC against the judgment by the National Industrial Court (NIC), reinstating 181 of its staff who were wrongly dismissed.
NIC had, in a judgment on March 19, 2015, ordered the NSCDC to reinstate the sacked staff with their full emoluments from the time they were illegally dismissed.
NIC had ordered NSCDC to return the employment letters to the affected 181 personnel and pay all arrears of their salaries amounting to about N1.2 billion.
The court also restrained the NSCDC from further tampering with the employment of the affected personnel.
Dissatisfied with the judgment, the NSCDC, and Immigration and Prisons Service Board (who were respondents at the NIC) appealed the judgment, but failed to diligently prosecute it.
A three-man panel of the Court of Appeal, led by Justice Moore Adumein, in a ruling, on July 18, 2016, upheld the respondentsโ request and dismissed the appeal for lack of diligent prosecution.
Obono Musa and 180 others had sued the Commandant-General, NSCDC, Dr. Ade Abolurin, alleging unlawful termination of their employments.
They prayed the court to declare that the verbal and oral suspension of the claimants by the NSCDC was null, void and of no effect.
The claimants also sought an order directing the defendants to recall all the claimants to work and to also release the original copies of their letters of employment to them.
They also asked for an order of the court directing the defendants to immediately pay them all arrears of salaries from 2007 till date.
