Five police officers from Akwa Ibom State who were dismissed from service in 2007 have appealed to the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, Aniekan Bassey, and other members of the National Assembly from the state, seeking justice.
The officers are demanding their reinstatement into the Nigeria Police Force, along with the payment of outstanding salaries and allowances dating back to 2007. This comes despite a court ruling in 2019 that ordered their reinstatement.
The affected officers—Sunday Okon, Anthony Ebong, Joseph Ede, Victor Ebe, and Uduak Sampson—were recruited into the force in 2003 but were dismissed four years later on allegations of being illiterate.
According to a petition obtained in Uyo, the officers stated that they were enlisted as specialists after undergoing police training and were found fit in terms of character, physical ability, and education.
Following their dismissal, they approached the National Industrial Court of Nigeria in suit No. NICN/UY/08/2018 after exhausting all administrative avenues for redress, including appeals to the Police Service Commission.
In 2019, the court ruled in their favour, declaring their dismissal unlawful, null, and void, and ordered their reinstatement to the ranks they would have attained had they not been dismissed.
The court also directed that all outstanding salaries and allowances be paid. In the Certified True Copy of the judgment, Justice M. A. Namtari held that the officers’ dismissal without adherence to due process and service regulations was illegal and unjustified.
“The Defendants are hereby ordered to immediately reinstate the Claimants into the Nigeria Police Force on the ranks they would have been but for their unlawful dismissal from service.
“The Defendants are hereby ordered and directed to pay each of the Claimants their salaries, allowances and other entitlements from January 2007 till the date of their reinstatement into the Nigeria Police Force.
“This judgment should be complied with within 90 days from today. Judgment entered accordingly. I make no order as to cost.’’
However, seven years after the judgment, nothing has been done to honour the ruling of the court despite repeated correspondences by the claimants to successive Inspectors General of Police and the PSC.
The Claimants why speaking to our correspondent expressed frustrations in the pursuit of justice, saying that all their efforts for the PSC to obey the court order have met a brick wall.
They recalled that former Senator Bassey Albert had brought their matter to the floor of the Senate but nothing was done eventually, even as they noted that most of their colleagues who knew people have been reinstated.
While narrating the hardship and inability to get another job since their dismissal two decades ago, they appealed to the Senate President Akpabio, to use his good office and benevolence to come to their rescue.
“We are dying here, life has not been easy with us at all. It’s by the grace of God that we are still alive, most of our colleagues have died in the process of litigation.
“We are not illiterate, we can read and write, besides we were employed based on trade test because we came in as specialists.
“We are begging our dear brother, the Senate President, Senator Godswill Akpabio, Senator Aniekan Bassey, Hon Clement Jimbo, Hon Mark Esset and all our lawmakers at the National Assembly to come to our rescue.
“All we want is for the PSC to obey the court order since the case was not appealed,” they pleaded.
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