Court dismisses suit by ex-staff of Federal Mortgage Bank, upholds voluntary resignation

A National Industrial Court in Abuja has dismissed the suit by Murtala Aliyu Ibrahim, a former staff member of the Federal Mortgage Bank, over his dismissal from service. Justice Osatohanmwen Obaseki-Osaghae on Tuesday dismissed both the originating claims and the counterclaims brought by the mortgage bank for failure to establish any breach and their entitlement to […]

A National Industrial Court in Abuja has dismissed the suit by Murtala Aliyu Ibrahim, a former staff member of the Federal Mortgage Bank, over his dismissal from service.

Justice Osatohanmwen Obaseki-Osaghae on Tuesday dismissed both the originating claims and the counterclaims brought by the mortgage bank for failure to establish any breach and their entitlement to their claims.

Justice Obaseki-Osaghae, however, declared that having voluntarily resigned from his appointment on May 9, 2019, all actions taken by Ibrahim and the mortgage bank, including the ministerial committee report, and the letter of dismissal dated September 26, 2019, were null and void and of no effect as “He ceased to be the employee of the defendant.

“The position of the law is that a notice of resignation takes effect, not from the date of resignation nor the date of acceptance, but from the date the letter was received from the employee,” the judge said.

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The judge also refused the claim by the mortgage bank for a refund of salaries earned during the claimant’s work with Baze University in 2018 after he was initially dismissed from the organisation before being recalled because he “Was entitled to seek another job.”

Ibrahim had filed the action, through his counsel, Hussein Hussein, Esq, challenging his dismissal while he was on leave of absence and the bank’s ‘defamatory’ disclaimer published on October 7, 2019.

He further demanded the sum of N500m in damages, the sum of N19.2m being his arrears of salaries between 2019 and 2021, a retraction and apology in three national newspapers and the sum of N3m as the cost of the litigation.

The bank, in its counterclaim, stated that the claimant’s leave of absence approval was from March 1, 2019, to April 30, 2019, and not from January 21, 2019, when he did not resume at Taraba State, where he was posted in 2018, and which he sought to extend for an extra three months to enable him to complete his PhD programme in banking and finance studies, and which was declined.

On the disclaimer, the judge agreed with the mortgage bank that the resignation of the employee was irregular due to the forwarding of the cheque of N1,164,451.74 being three months’ basic salary in lieu of the resignation, on July 29, 2019, instead of the date of his resignation, adding that the newspaper publication was not defamatory as it was factual, and being intended to protect the financial institution, was a privileged publication that falls under justification and fair comment.