Retirement: Sokoto govt files appeal against reinstatement order

Sokoto state Government has filed a Notice of Appeal against the judgement of the National Industrial Court in Sokoto, which ordered the reinstatement of a former Auditor General of the state, Sambo Nawawi. Justice Kiyashot Damulak had given the order in the case brought before the court by Nawawi challenging his retirement by the Sokoto […]

Sokoto state Government has filed a Notice of Appeal against the judgement of the National Industrial Court in Sokoto, which ordered the reinstatement of a former Auditor General of the state, Sambo Nawawi.

Justice Kiyashot Damulak had given the order in the case brought before the court by Nawawi challenging his retirement by the Sokoto state government.

But in the Notice of Appeal, the appellants, i.e. the Sokoto state government and Attorney General/Commissioner for Justice, Sulaiman Usman SAN, asserted: “The judgement is against the weight of evidence.”

The appellants stated: “The National Industrial Court erred in law which occasioned a miscarriage of justice when it held that the retirement age in section 127(2) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,1999 (as amended) is a reference to biological age and not years of service.”

According to them, section 127(2) of the 1999 Constitution cannot be interpreted in isolation of law which prescribed the retirement age. “It is a trite law that a court cannot put into the statuses what is not there,” the appellants averred, adding “the function of the court is to interpret the law and not to make law.”

The appellants also filed a motion for Stay of Execution of the National Industrial Court Sokoto constituted by Justice Kiyashot Damulak in the suit between Sambo Nawawi and the state government as well as in the decision of the court delivered on the 30th of May 2018, pending the hearing of the applicants’ appeal before the Court of Appeal.