By Job Osazuwa
When 536 Nigerians were engaged by the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) on January 30, 2003, their joy knew no bounds. Their excitement was expected. They had been without jobs for many years.
But the celebration only lasted four years, as their appointments were allegedly wrongly terminated by their employer. Their selection for the job, Daily Sun learnt, was after a rigorous screening exercise, and the successful candidates went into jubilation afterwards.
A letter dated January 30, 2003 and signed by Luke Kure on behalf of the then Managing Director of NPA, titled: “Offer of Admission/Appointment as a Technical Trainee in the Technical Training Centre” was given to each of the employees. The letter read in part: “I am pleased to inform you that as a result of your performance in the just concluded examination/interview, you have been offered an admission as a technical trainee in the authority’s pensionable service on a commencing salary grade JSS 3 in the authority’s structure.
“You will be expected to spend a maximum of four years in the training centre. On successful completion, you will be deployed appropriately. Your first year of admission will be a period of probation and subject to termination by either side on one month notice or salary in lieu. Upon successful completion of the probation period, your admission/appointment may be confirmed.
“The engagement is otherwise subject to the rules and regulations in force and made from time to time by the authority. Your training commences on March 3, 2003.”
The employees, who were drawn from the six geopolitical zones, in line with the federal character quota-system, converged on NPA’s Technical Training Centre in Apapa, Lagos for the programme. They were said to have passed the probation and graduated in March 2007 and issued certificates and testimonials.
The displaced workers happily underwent training in foundry and pattern-making; ship building; fabrication; turning and machining; welding; refrigeration and air-conditioning; motor vehicle;
electrical; carpentry and joinery; block laying and concreting; Plumbing and pipe fitting; painting and decorating; diving and marine sections.
In a chat with Daily Sun, the chairman of the affected workers under the umbrella of Nigerian Ports Authority Technical Trainee Graduates Association, 2003-2007 set, Mr. Tsado Francis Okpoh, lamented that they were unlawfully sacked. He alleged that they were not served any formal letters of termination of their appointments.
Okpoh said after their graduation, and while they were waiting to be deployed as promised by NPA, all the graduates were informed that their employment could no longer be sustained. The only reason the authority gave, according to the aggrieved chairman, was that NPA was undergoing some reforms. It was a piece of news that expectedly shattered the employees’ dreams, forcefully sending them back into the labour market.
However, he admitted that on April 4, 2006, while their training was on, the workers were served with letters, stating that NPA could no longer be responsible for their sponsorship and that their monthly salary could no longer be paid. They were then offered one month salary in lieu of notice.
But, following the intervention of the then Minister of Transport, Dr. Abiye Precious Sekibo on the issue, it was gathered that the workers were recalled to their training till the end of their courses in 2007.
Okpoh said NPA refused to honour the minister’s intervention.
He recalled that efforts by and pleas from the National Assembly, ex-Secretary to the Government of the Federation, traditional rulers and other concerned citizens could not change the mind of their employers. The concerned workers had also held several demonstrations, prevailing on the authority to reabsorb them, but all to no avail.
In 2010, some of the trainees instituted a suit with no FHC/L/CS/1412/10 against the authority at the Federal High Court, seeking the court’s declaration that the refusal of the authority to deploy them at the expiration of their courses was a violation of their contracts of employment and terms and conditions of services of the authority.
The General Secretary of the aggrieved workers’ union, Mr. Azubike Daniel, told the reporter that NPA advertised two years ago, calling on the 2006/2007 eligible ex-employees to come forward for verification
at its corporate headquarters in Lagos. According to him, they appeared for the verification exercise in 2014 with the hope that their seven-year suffering would soon end. But they are yet to be reabsorbed till date.
He lamented that some of his colleagues had died in the course of the struggle. He said hunger and malnutrition had visited many of them and their family members from 2007 till now.
According to Azubike, majority of the sacked workers were yet to find a decent job till date, even as he informed that many had been forced to relocate to different villages when they could no longer endure the starvation, ravaging their homes in the city. He said the authority had carried out several employments for fresh people after their own disengagement.
They had written letters, calling on the Managing Director of NPA, Hadiza Bala Usman, to intervene in their matter and deploy them appropriately.
It was gathered that a committee set up by NPA to look into the aggrieved workers’ petitions, in a release dated June 29, 2016 and signed by A. M. Aliyu, for General Manager, Personnel, advised the authority to pay N2 million to each of the disengaged workers, in line with the recommendation of the National Assembly.
This was decided after the House of Representatives, on May 17, 2016, considered the report of the committee on public petitions in respect of the petition by Technical Trainee Graduates Association against NPA, on alleged non-placement after their training.
According to the National Assembly’s recommendations signed by the then acting Clerk of the House, M. A. Musa: “In the alternative, the NPA should absorb the petitioners, having trained them for four years, certified and documented as worthy officers of the organisation before their disengagement.”
One of the reasons that prompted the recommendation, as gathered, was traceable to the judgment delivered by Justice O. E. Abang in the Federal High Court on May 22, 2013. The ruling was in favour of the
trainees, which described NPA’s action as unlawful.
In the ruling, the court held that the continued refusal of the defendant (NPA) to deploy the plaintiffs (trainees), having successfully completed the training, was unlawful, wrongful and illegal and of no effect being a violation of both the contract of employment and terms and conditions of service of the defendant.
The court also held that the defendant could not stop the plaintiffs’ salaries/allowances and could not even remove the employees from office except in accordance with the procedure in the conditions of
service as recognised by the statute.
The court ordered NPA to pay the plaintiffs their salaries, leave and Christmas bonuses from March 2007 till judgment day. The NPA’s in-house committee, however, advised that N2 million should be
considered to be paid to each of the trainees, adding that the court judgment on paying the trainees’ salaries for nine years would be too costly for the authority to implement.
It was gathered that NPA filed an appeal, seeking to reverse the judgment, an appeal which comes up later in May, 2017.
When contacted, Chief Michael Ajayi, NPA’s General Manager, Public Affairs, refused to comment on the matter insisting that the issues involved were in court. “The matter is on appeal. It will be subjudice to discuss it. I am aware that those concerned have approached media houses, asking for publicity for their cause,” he said.