Lawyer writes NAF

A lawyer, Abdulkarim Suleiman has written to the Chief of Air Staff, urging him to execute the judgment reinstating his client Wing Commander Yusuf Garba Mshelia to the rank of Group Captain and pay all the entitlements. Wing Commander Yusuf Garba Mshelia had sued the NAF and the Chief of Air Staff in April 2010 […]

A lawyer, Abdulkarim Suleiman has written to the Chief of Air Staff, urging him to execute the judgment reinstating his client Wing Commander Yusuf Garba Mshelia to the rank of Group Captain and pay all the entitlements.
Wing Commander Yusuf Garba Mshelia had sued the NAF and the Chief of Air Staff in April 2010 challenging his “unlawful retirement” from the Force.
He had gone to court seeking a declaration that his letter of compulsory retirement signed by one Group Captain G. O. Udokhai was illegal, null and void as Udokhai was not a member of the Air Force Council and he was not authorized by the body to transmit such correspondence.
He asked the court to make an order reinstating him to the rank of Group Captain and that his salaries and allowances which have accrued since 1999 be paid to him. Defendants in the suit had argued that the action was statute barred (having taken that long to institute) as such the court had no jurisdiction to entertain the suit.
Delivering judgment, 3rd November 2011, Justice Gabriel Kolawole held that Mshelia should be reinstated to the rank he was as at 19, July 1999 (Wing Commander) when he was compulsorily retired, adding that he was also entitled to the payment of all his outstanding arrears of salaries.
Kolawole however struck out the suit saying that the suit was statute barred because Mshelia instituted the action after 11 years, contrary to the Armed Forces Act which mandates the plaintiff to seek judicial redress within three months.
Dissatisfied with the second part of the judgment, Mshelia appealed to the Court of Appeal, Abuja, which set aside the High Court judgment striking out Mshelia’s suit on the ground that it was statute barred.
Armed with the Court of Appeal judgment, Mshelia (Judgment creditor) through his lawyer is back before Kolawole to compel NAF and Ministry of Defence to enforce the court order.