His Lordship, Hon. Justice Isaac Essien of the National Industrial Court, Lagos Judicial Division has ordered Ecobank Nig Ltd to immediately write to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), to retract its earlier letter reporting the purported dismissal of Mr. Oshajare Sunday and thereafter file a copy of the said letter in the honourable court within two weeks or risk the consequence of disobedience to Court order.

The Court held that the reason given for the dismissal of Sunday from the bank was unjustifiable, unlawful and was accordingly set aside, ordered Ecobank to compute and pay claimant’s arrears of salary from the 3rd Feb. 2017 to 17th August 2018 within the next one month, with One Million Naira damages.

The claimant- Sunday was employed in 2006 as an executive trainee and rose to the position of Relationship Manager until he was terminated of his appointment on 3/2/2017, contended that his dismissal was unjustified and without any basis.

The defendant posited that the claimant’s dismissal was in respect of the defendant’s Human Resources Policies & Procedures that the claimant acted unprofessionally in the course of his duties, that In line with the report of the committee, the claimant was dismissed from the employment of the defendant.

Claimant counsel argued that the claimant could not have been guilty of the allegation as to warrant his dismissal, argued further that the grounds upon which the defendant purportedly dismissed the claimant was not known to the bank policy handbook.

Delivering judgment, the presiding Judge, Justice Essien held that the evidence adduced by the defendant supports the position that there was no compromise on the part of the claimant.

“Apart from the offence of conflict of interest which I have held in this judgment that the claimant was not in any way culpable in that respect, the other allegations which the claimant was subjected to disciplinary hearing are not among the offences listed in HR Policy as offences that constitute gross misconduct which attract the disciplinary sanction of dismissal.

“It is for this reason and other reasons stated in this judgment that this court has come to the conclusion that the dismissal of the claimant vide the letter of dismissal, and the reason given for the dismissal is unjustifiable. Accordingly, the dismissal of the claimant by the letter dated the 3rd February 2017 is unlawful and of no effect whatsoever. It is therefore set aside.” Justice Essien