Abuja – The National Industrial Court of Nigeria (NICN) on Monday gave another opportunity to the FCT Permanent Secretary, Mr John Chukwu, to appear before it on Aug. 13.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Chukwu is being summoned following a suit filed by one Dr Chukwuemeka Okeke, a medical doctor in the service of the FCDA.
Okeke is seeking the order of the court for his employers to pay him salaries owed him over a period of 26 months.
Okeke was initially suspended from work for about 23 months with his salary stopped.
He was, however, recalled to work after a committee set up by former FCT Minister Bala Mohammed found him not guilty of the offence for which he was suspended. His salaries have yet to be paid up till date.
Okeke, therefore, instituted a case against the FCT authorities on July 7, following which notices were said to have been served on the permanent secretary and eight other officials of the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) on July 10, to appear before the court.
Meanwhile, the court had ruled that the defendant should pay the plaintiff his salaries, pending the hearing of the motion. Yet no payment has been made to the claimant.
Counsel to the claimant Kubor Okata, told the court at the resumed hearing of the case on Monday, that the order and the suit were duly served on Chukwu on July 10 but he had yet to comply.
Furthermore, Okata also said that the permanent secretary was also served notice of the consequences of disobedience to the order of the court as contained in Form 48.
[pro_ad_display_adzone id=”10″]
Due to the absence of the defendants, vacation Judge Peter Lifu, who is presiding over the case, said he could not “force any one to be in court during vacation”.
Lifu, however, warned that the court was not weak, but would grant the defendant another opportunity to appear before it on Aug. 13 for fair hearing, adding that the notice should be duly served on the defendant. (NAN)
