The National Industrial Court of Nigeria (NICN) sitting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, has ordered the Inspector General of Police (IGP) and the Police Service Commission (PSC) to pay the sum of N34,715,121.00 to Edward Orukpe Oyamedan, for wrongful dismissal from the Nigeria Police Force (NPF).
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Oyamedan had dragged the defendants (IGP and PSC) to court following his unlawful dismissal from service for an unsubstantiated allegation.
In his written statement, Oyamedan said his travail started in June, 1984, when he, as second-in-command, Criminal Investigation Department (CID), had an intelligent report that someone imported four containers of hard drugs (heroin and cocaine) and arms and ammunition via Onne Port, Port Harcourt.
The claimant said he and his team arrested the suspect identified as Mr. Ohaji, and charged him to court; the court then ordered him to remand the suspect in Police custody.
According to the claimant, the then IGP sent a senior officer, C.S.P Buka Biri, from Force Headquarters in Lagos, to order the claimant to release Mr. Ohaji. But, he declined, reminding the C.S.P that the suspect was remanded by the order of court.
The claimant explained that CSP Biri personally released the suspect, carried the file and exhibits away.
He said that after this development, while his immediate boss was promoted to the rank of Commissioner of Police, he (claimant) was subsequently suspended by the IGP and dismissed from service by the PSC.
According to the claimant, he sued the IGP and PSC, and was later absolved of wrong allegation made against him by the former.
He claimed that the court ordered PSC to reinstate him with effect from April, 1992, immediately and be paid all entitlements. But, the commission disobeyed the court order despite all his appeals.
Oyamedan further said his counsel wrote the PSC in 2009 and he was reinstated in 2011on ground that he had been forgiven, which the claimant said he rejected because he demanded to be absolved of any wrongdoing.
Having gone through about 30 years of legal battle, the claimant lamented that his wrongful dismissal cut short his dream to rise to the peak of his career in the Police Force.
However, delivering the judgement on Thursday, Justice Buhari Sani of Court 3, declared that the claimant is entitled to the payment of his arrears of salaries and all other entitlements arising from his wrongful dismissal, calculated accordingly.
He also ordered that the IGP shall pay to the claimant the sum of ₦34,715,121.00 being the balance of his entitlement after deducting the sum of ₦1,952,710.60 already paid to the claimant.
The judge further said the sum shall attract judgement interest at the rate of 10 percent per annum from the date of this judgement until the whole sum is finally liquidated.
The court also ordered that the payment shall be made within 30 days of this judgement.
Reacting to the judgement, the claimant’s counsel, Reginald Osere, said it was a long legal battle for justice on behalf of their client, explaining that the case had lasted for about 30 years and involved what the judge described as victimization and high-handedness by authorities against the claimant, who was wrongly dismissed for doing the right thing.
According to him, the court finally ruled in favour of their client and ordered the police to pay him all his due entitlements in compliance with the judgment.
He expressed relief that the matter had finally come to an end and stated that their client could now have closure, justice and proper reparation after many years of struggle.
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