Etche Local Government Council in Rivers State has appealed the order of the The Presiding Judge, Makurdi Judicial Division of the National Industrial Court, His Lordship, Hon. Justice Salisu Danjidda ordering it to pay its former Supervisory Councillor, Hon. Emeka Mbonu the sum of N4,855,800.00 as severance/gratuity and furniture allowance within 30 days.

Hon. Emeka Mbonu had filed the action in NICN/ABJ/365/2014: Hon Emeka Mbonu V. Etche Local Government Council stating that he was appointed as Council Supervisor on 7th August 2008 and that there were shortages in the payment of his monthly salaries for which he complained to the Council but nothing was done until his tenure lapsed in 2011. He further asked the court for payment of his salaries, allowances and entitlements from August 2008 to May 2009 and from June 2009 to March 2011.

Delivering judgment on the 30th of June 2020, the judge held that to prove entitlements, an employee must refer the court to the exact law, instrument or document and that a claim for entitlements of salary or allowances is a claim for special damages which must be specifically pleaded and strictly proved with compelling evidence. The court further held that Mr. Mbonu had tilted the balance of probability in his favour only as regards his severance/gratuity and furniture allowances and awarded the sum of N4,855,800.00 as severance/gratuity and furniture allowance to be paid to him by the Council within 30 days.

In the appeal filed by its counsel, Ugonna Elenwoke ESQ and predicated on four grounds, the Council stated that there was no justification for the learned trial judge to award the said sum to Mr. Mbonu when the record before the court clearly showed that part of that head of claim had already been paid to him and that the award in the circumstance amounted to double compensation.

The Council also posited that the finding of the court that Mr. Mbonu had tilted the balance of probability in his favor was clearly speculative, perverse and could not be supported either in law or fact. The Council further contended that Mr. Mbonu under re-examination admitted having sued the Council for his entitlements as House Leader in 2011 and the proper inference the trial judge ought to have drawn in the circumstance was that he was paid his entitlements then.

The Notice of Appeal dated the 5th of October 2020 is also sequel to an application before the Court of Appeal seeking leave to appeal against the judgment being one delivered by the National Industrial Court pursuant to the provisions of Section 243 (3) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) and by virtue of the decision of the Supreme Court of Nigeria in SC/311/2017: SKYE BANK v. VICTOR ANANEM IWU [reported at (2017) 13 NWLR (PT. 1590) 24], to the effect that an appeal to the Court of Appeal from any decision of the National Industrial Court other than an appeal on any fundamental rights question, shall not be as of right, but upon leave of the Court of Appeal.

The application is yet to be fixed for hearing.