The legal action filed by the Association of Senior Staff of Banks, Insurance and Financial Institutions (ASSBIFI) and nine others, against the Trade Union Congress (TUC) was on Monday reserved for judgment.
The case was reserved for judgment by Justice Rabi Gwandu of the National Industrial Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos, after parties adopted their written addresses in the main originating summon and the counter responses.
The judge informed lawyers in the legal confrontation that the date for judgment would be communicated to them.
Justice Gwandu had at the last proceeding protested against what she termed the flagrant disobedience of her order, which had restrained TUC from holding its 12th triennial delegates’ conference pending the hearing and determination of the substantive suit before the court.
During Monday’s sitting on the matter, the claimants’ lawyer, Timothy Adewale, who moved a pending motion filed against the defendants, over alleged disobedience of the order made by the court, prayed the judge to commit the TUC President and Secretary General to prison for their alleged failure and disobedience of court, which restrained TUC from holding its 12th triennial delegates’ conference, pending the hearing and determination of the substantive suit before the court.
The lawyer equally called the attention of the judge to a piece of video evidence where the resolution came up in the 2019 conference.
It is recalled that ASSBIFI and nine others had initiated the suit against the TUC, praying the judge that by virtue of the agreements and resolutions reached and ratified at the 11th triennial delegates’ conference of the defendant held on June 28, 2019, at NAF Centre, Abuja, the 1st claimant (ASSBIFI) should produce the next president of the TUC for the year 2022 to 2025.
The plaintiffs also asked the judge for an order, mandating and compelling the defendant to immediately enable the 1st claimant to produce and assume the office of the president of the defendant, in line with the agreement and resolutions reached and ratified at the 11th triennial delegates’ conference in Abuja.
The application is supported by a 27-paragraph affidavit deposed to by the General Secretary of the Pulp Paper and Paper Products Printing and Publishing Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PPAPPPAPSSAN), Benedict Ikegbulam.
Ikegbulam had sworn that sometimes in 2019, due to the leadership imbroglio and the intricate nature of the situation around the presidency of the TUC, members of the defendant, during its triennial delegates’ conference, constituted an electoral committee chaired by Comrade Augustine Etafo of Construction and Engineering Senior Staff Association of Nigeria and also a Deputy President of the Congress to work out modalities for elections into TUC, as a way of resolving the imbroglio and saving the defendant from collapse.
Ikegbulam had averred: “That the electoral committee after the national officers’ position were harmonised with the approval of the National Executive Council of the defendant, recommended to the defendant the following order of presidency of the defendant to prevent rancour or internal crisis:
“That Food, Beverages, and Tobacco Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (FOBTOB) take the position of TUC president from 2019 to 2022. That ASSBIFI take the position of TUC president from 2022 to 2025, and after the tenure of ASSBIFI, the position of the president shall be open to all members to contest, and that these recommendations were approved and ratified.
“The claimants, were, however, surprised that the defendant, in preparations for the 12th triennial delegates’ conference, published a special notice, dated February 8, 2022, for positions to be contested (2022 to 2025) at the conference to include the office of the president of the TUC without any regard to the aforementioned motions adopted, ratified and already being implemented.”
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