Court affirms sack of former UNICAL bursar

The former bursar of the University of Calabar, Peter Agi sacked by the Senate of the University in her 146th Council meeting on Thursday, November 3, 2016 has been affirmed by Industrial court sitting in Calabar. The University authority had accused the bursar of insubordination and disrespect for constituted authority as well as other sundry allegations.

Agi’s counsel, Professor Ogene Emeri, had among others raised the issue of the institution’s non-compliance with due process in the suspension and subsequent sack of the former Bursar and raised the issue of jurisdiction. He, however, said the issue of fraud raised against his client was not true but a deliberate action to embarrass him and therefore should be re-instated.

In his defence, University’s counsel, Chief Chukwuma Ekumaru (SAN), said the court has no jurisdiction to handle the case as the second (Professor Zana) and third defendant, (the Registrar Moses Abang) were not sued in their individual capacity as well. On the issue of fraud, Ekumaru alleged that the police arrested the Bursar on the case of fraud and another letter signed by 209 staff of the university asked the council to remove him.

Interestingly, on due process, he argued that Agi didn’t follow “section 16 of act of the university’ before he (Agi) rushed to court in less than four days of his suspension and he did not appear before the panel that investigated the matter” on the excuse that the matter was in court. He maintained that the suit before the court was premature as claimant did not exhaust sect 16 of the university act and “failure to exhaust internal mechanisms is a matter of law and asked the court to strike out the suit for want of jurisdiction.

Delivering judgment, the presiding Judge, Justice M. M. Esowe, ruled that both VC and Registrar can be sued on that the court has jurisdiction to entertain the suit. The court further ruled that the claimant, Agi, was not competent to sue as he didn’t exhausted the internal mechanisms of the school for resolution of dispute before rushing to court and has violated Section 80 of the University of Calabar Act, 1979.

Section 80 of the University of Calabar Act, 1979 stipulates that “after suspension, a period of 3 months is given within which the issue can be resolved the affected staff is placed on half salary during the period. ”The court also ruled that the VC has the powers to suspend the bursar or any staff and report to council and then council either upholds the decision or throw it away.

Justice Esowe further ruled that the case was premature and that claimant approached the court after four days after his suspension instead of three months and subsequently struck out for lack for incompetence. Reacting, the counsel to Vice-Chancellor, Bar. Abiye Aturodibo of the SEEDS of Change Attorneys, Port Harcourt, said “the court has done justice to this matter and completely vindicated our position that the action he has filed was premature and he didn’t follow due process.

“UNICAL has rules and court has emphasised that there is an internal mechanism which has to be exhausted,” he stated. Reacting one of Agi’s lawyers, C.N Nwjaobi, said the lead counsel had raised the issue bothering on fact that there are have been further development after the suspension and her team needed to bring to the notie of the attention of the trial judge. Nwajaobi said the issue was no more suspension, but that of sack which was overruled.