National Electric Power Authority V. J. A. Ososanya & Ors (2004)

LAWGLOBAL HUB Lead Judgment Report

IGUH, J.S.C.

This is an appeal against the judgment of the Court of Appeal, Lagos Division, which had on the 28th day of September, 2000 dismissed two consolidated appeals by the defendant from the decisions of Jinadu, J. of the Federal High Court, Lagos delivered on the 2nd day of February, 1996 and the 23rd day of April, 1997 respectively. The Court of Appeal had affirmed the decisions of the trial court and held that the Federal High Court had jurisdiction to hear and determine the two suits instituted by the respondents, as plaintiffs/applicants, against the defendant, herein the appellant. The suits challenged the termination/dismissal of the appointments of the respondents by the appellant pursuant to the provisions of the Public Officers (Special Provisions) Decree No. 17 of 1984, hereinafter referred to as “Decree No. 17 of 1984.”

The plaintiffs/applicants, 271 in all, had filed two actions in representative capacities challenging their respective termination/ dismissal from the defendant’s employment. The claims, in substance, are for the reinstatement of the plaintiffs and the nullification of their respective termination/dismissal. In the first action, the first set of plaintiffs claimed as follows:-

“(1) A declaration that the purported termination of the applicants’ appointment, conveyed by the respondents’ letters dated the 10th day of August, 1994 or sometime thereafter is wrongful, null and void and of no effect whatsoever and howsoever.

(2) An order reinstating the applicants herein as bona fide staff of the National Electrical Power Authority.

(3) An order of perpetual injunction restraining the respondent whether by itself, servants, agents and/or privies from further acting and/or implementing the contents of the letters dated the 10th August, 1994 or sometime thereafter in any manner whatsoever and howsoever.”

In the second action, the rest of the plaintiffs claimed against the defendant thus:-

“(1) A declaration that the purported dismissal of the applicants conveyed by the respondent’s letters dated 10th of August, 1994 or sometime thereafter is wrongful, null and void and of no effect whatsoever or howsoever.

(2) An order reinstating the applicants herein as bona fide staff of the National Electrical Power Authority.

(3) An order of perpetual injunction restraining the respondent whether by itself, servants, agents and/or privies from further acting and/or implementing the contents of the letters dated 10th August, 1994 or sometimes thereafter in any manner whatsoever.”

The main ground for these actions is that the plaintiffs’ fundamental right to fair hearing was alleged to have been breached by the defendant in the matter of their termination/dismissal from the employment of the defendant authority.

In response to both suits, the defendant on the 6th day of February, 1995 filed notices of preliminary objection contending, inter alia, that the termination/dismissal of the plaintiffs were carried out pursuant to the provisions of the Public Officers (Special Provisions) Decree No. 17 of 1984 which at all material times ousted the jurisdiction of the trial Federal High Court to entertain the suits. In the affidavit in support of its notice of preliminary objection, the defendant deposed that the plaintiffs were employed by the defendant authority at various times between 1977 and 1994. As a result of some trade dispute, the plaintiffs organised themselves and formed what they called Workers Welfare Association, (WWA) for short. When they were poised for a strike action, the Ministry of Labour and Productivity pointed out to them that any strike action would be illegal as the union was not registered. When it became clear that the WWA were not ready to yield any ground, the defendant mobilised its top management staff to man key positions in all the defendant’s power stations. On the 5th August, 1994, the defendant claimed that members of the WWA called out workers on strike, forced their way into some of the defendant’s power stations, damaged some of the defendant’s equipment in the process and thereby threw some parts of the country into total darkness. It asserted that the illegal activities of the plaintiffs were reported to the then Head of State, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria who directed by his letter of the 8th August, 1994 that the plaintiffs’ appointments with the defendant be terminated/dismissed forthwith pursuant to his powers under Decree No. 17 of 1984. The defendant in its notice of preliminary objection exhibited the letters signed by the then Head of State, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria, General Sani Abacha by which he authorised the termination/dismissal of the plaintiffs and mandated the Hon. Minister of Power and Steel or any officer of the defendant authority to sign the appropriate termination/dismissal letters. The names of all the plaintiffs were set out in the termination/dismissal list.

Arguments were duly heard by the trial court from learned counsel for both patties. For the defendant, it was argued that the jurisdiction of the trial Federal High Court was ousted by the said Decree No. 17 of 1984 under which the appointments of the plaintiffs were terminated/dismissed. In opposing the application, learned counsel for the plaintiffs submitted that the appointments of the said plaintiffs were not terminated pursuant to Decree No. 17 of 1984 and that the invocation of the Decree was an after thought.

In a considered ruling, Jinadu, J. dismissed the preliminary objections and held that the termination/dismissal of the plaintiffs were not in accordance with the provisions of the said Decree No. 17 of 1984.