Court Reinstates Sacked Seven Oyo Directors

For seven sacked Directors in the Oyo State Local Government Service Commission, the last may not have been heard as the National Industrial Court has reinstated them and declared their sack as illegal.

The affected officers; John Adeyinka Adeleye, Fajimi Kayode Eyitayo, Oyewole Samuel Oloyede, Alhaji Lawal Ismaila Ayansiju, Oyerinde Kolawole Olusola and Ayoola Clement Akintunde are Directors of Administration and General Services with the Local Government Service Commission and the seventh person, Obadokun Onaolapo Titilayo, a director of Finance & Supplies in the same commission, were in February sacked by the state government.

On Monday, Justice Edith Agbakoba of the National Industrial Court Ibadan division reinstated them in her ruling as she declared their sacking as wrong, null and void and of no effect, and also ordered that each of the affected personalities be re-instated to the civil service with compensation of N100,000 each.
The affected officers, who were led in a suit NCIN/IB/44/2013 filed by John Adeyinka Adeleye, challenged the Oyo State Governor, Oyo State Government, Attorney General and Commissioner of Justice, Oyo State and the Local Government Service Commission, Oyo State, against the wrongful dismissal from service last year.

They jointly claimed that the “purported retirement of the claimants from the services of the defendants vide letter dated February 7, 2013 is premature, unlawful, illegal, null and void.”

Other prayers of the claimants which was granted by Justice Agbakoba included that the claimants are still in the services of the defendants “until they attain the age of 60 years or put in 35years of service, that the services of the complainant can only be brought to an end by due compliance with the law regulating the Civil Service of Oyo State and order directing the defendants to reinstate the claimants to its services henceforth.

Justice Agbakoba in her ruling ordered the claims by the defendants that the claimants were redundant cannot be sustained since the defendants were the one who re-posted the claimants to the stations where they were alleged to be redundant. She also noted that their dismissal did not follow due process as stipulated by law.

She ordered that they be reinstated accordingly because their termination was “Wrong, unlawful, null and void and of no effect.”