Unlawful retirement: Supreme Court fixes September 2020 for hearing of Maj. Awoyomi’s appeal

The Supreme Court on Monday adjourned until September 21, 2020 an appeal filed by retired Maj. Ekundayo Awoyomi seeking to be reinstated into the Nigerian Army.

Awoyomi in his appeal alleged that he was summarily and unlawfully retired from the Nigerian Army in September 1990 without a prior retirement notice.

When the matter came up for hearing on Monday, Awoyomi informed the apex court that his lawyer was indisposed and prayed for a short adjournment.

The respondents, Chief of Army Staff, Federal Ministry of Defence, Zenith bank and Attorney-General of the Federation did not oppose Awoyomi’s application for adjournment.

Consequently, the presiding Justice of the panel, Justice Dattijo Muhammad adjourned the matter to September 21, 2020 for hearing.

According to court records, on December 13, 2006, Justice Abdu Kafarati ruled that Awoyomi’s retirement was defective.

The judge ordered that he should be paid his salaries, allowances and all other benefits from the date of his purported retirement, that is 1990, to date.

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The judge clarified that the date of the judgment should be taken into consideration as having formed part of his service years.

Awoyomi told journalists after the Supreme Court session that the army had been unfair to him.

He said that in spite of the fact that the army had admitted their errors on his unlawful retirement and had issued a fresh retirement letter in 2017, the army authorities have not deemed it fit to correctly calculate his retirement benefits and place him on pension.

He said that after the Federal High Court judgment the army jettisoned their lawyers from the office of Attorney General who represented them and engaged private legal practitioners who also lost at the Court of Appeal.

According to him, he was eased out of the military in 1990 but his disengagement letter bore no reason he was asked to go.

Awoyomi, a 1976 Psychology graduate of the University of Illinois, Chicago, United States worked in the Public Relations Directorate of the Nigerian Army which he joined as a Lieutenant on March 1, 1978. (NAN)