Mr. A. O. Awokunle V. National Electric Power Authority [NEPA] (2007)

LawGlobal-Hub Lead Judgment Report

AUGIE, J.C.A.

The Appellant was an employee of the Respondent until he was retired on the 16th of March 1992 for rejecting an offer of appointment as Officer III (Accts).

Upon retirement he collected his pension at the Ibadan District Office until May 1999 when he was directed to be collecting his pension at Oyo Town, which he complied with. In January 1999, the Federal Government announced a 150% pension increment for pensioners and the Respondent implemented the increment for all its retirees from July – December 2000.

The Appellant was paid for the month of July and August at the Ibadan District Office and was told to collect the balance at the Oyo District Office.

The Appellant however complained to the Respondent in a letter dated 17th April 2002 that he was not paid for the months of September – November and the Respondent replied him in a letter dated 15th May 2002, which reads –

“I hereby acknowledge the receipt of your letter–and wish to inform you that the District Management is not owing you any pension arrears since all your entitlements had been fully settled as shown in the pension Payment Voucher of February 2001. It was stated in your letter that you had earlier collected two months arrears of four months at Oyo as reflected in the Payment Voucher for the month of February 2001, it is clear that the District Management is not owing you. With the above in mind, I would want you to desist further from peddling false stories against the District Management as Management would not hesitate to ask Corporate Headquarters to change your Pay Point to another District should this act of yours persist”.

Almost two years later, the Appellant through his counsel wrote a Demand Letter dated 14th April 2004 to the Respondent; the last part of which reads –

“On the instructions of our client, we are hereby by this letter demanding the immediate payment to our client the unpaid 150% pension increase for the months of September, October, and November 2000 which by our client’s calculation total Seventy Thousand, Two Hundred Naira (N70, 000.00). Take notice that in the event of your failure to comply with this demand, this letter serves to give you notice of the intention of our client to institute legal actions against Your Authority on the subject matter”.

On the 29th of June 2004, the Appellant carried out his threat and instituted an action against the Respondent at the Oshogbo Judicial Division of the Federal High Court, which was subsequently transferred to the Ibadan Judicial Division of the same Court on the Orders of the Federal High Court, Oshogbo.

After pleadings were filed and exchanged at Federal High Court, Ibadan, and the matter set down for hearing, the Respondent filed a Motion on Notice dated 25th day of April 2005, praying the Federal High Court for the following-

(i) An Order of the Honourable Court setting aside/striking out the Plaintiff’s Suit as being grossly incompetent and abuse of Court process.

(ii) An Order of the Honourable Court striking out the Plaintiff’s Suit for lack of jurisdiction.

Grounds of this Application

(i) The suit is not properly instituted before this Court.