UI urges court to dismiss suit filed by sacked lecturer

The University of Ibadan (UI) on Wednesday urged the National Industrial Court sitting in Ibadan, to dismiss a wrongful termination of appointment suit filed by a Senior Lecturer, Dr Adenike Ogunshe.

Ogunshe, a lecturer in the Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Science at UI, dragged the institution and its counsel to the court over wrongful termination of appointment.

UI counsel, Mr Adebayo Ajayi, who called a witness, Mr John Ajibola, Principal Assistant Registrar at the institution, witness, tendered 140 documents as an exhibit against the claimant.

In his response, Counsel to the claimant, Femi Aborisade, said he has gone through the documents tendered against his client and 20 of them were not signed and dated.

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Aborisade cited Section 104 of the Evidence Act to support his argument that documents not signed and dated cannot be acted upon.

He urged the court to reject those documents.

In a ruling, Justice John Peter admitted the 120 documents as exhibits.

Peter adjourned the case till April 25 for a continuation of hearing.

NAN reports that the claimant’s counsel had told the court that due process was not followed in terminating the appointment of his client.

Aborisade said the termination of the appointment of his client on June 14, 2016, by the institution over alleged misconduct was wrongful, unconstitutional and a violation of her constitutional guaranteed right to justice and fair hearing.

He urged the court to set aside the purported termination and order reinstatement of his client without any loss of earning, salaries and allowances.

The claimant’s counsel also urged the court to award N8 million as damages against the institution for failure to give three months notice before termination of appointment.