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The Presiding Judge, Owerri Judicial Division of the National Industrial Court, His Lordship, Hon. Justice Ibrahim Galadima has dismissed the suit filed by the former bursar of the Imo State University, Mr. Chukwuma Casmir Okwu against the institution for lacking merit.
The court held that Mr Okwu's statutory appointment as a registrar completely ceased having not been renewed for a fresh second term and awarded the sum of N50,000.00 in favour of the university as the cost of the action.
From facts, the claimant- Chukwuma Casmir Okwu had pleaded that he was accordingly appointed by the University as a bursar for a single 5-year tenure in 2010 and that in accordance with the Imo State Law, he is entitled to a 1-year extension of service at the expiration of his tenure; that the defendants merely extended his tenure of office by 1 month and no more.
He stated that all efforts to get the defendant varsity to re-assign him with other duties, the payment of his salaries and allowances from 2015 have proven abortive to date.
In its defense, the University stated that Mr. Okwu's contract of service was not a permanent one that the said reassignment of duties demanded by the claimant, is unknown and strange to the institution's laws and guidelines and thus inapplicable to the claimant.
Meanwhile, the University’s counsel, S.C. Imo Esq., had argued that Mr Okwu lost the right to institute the action against the defendants because it was initiated 3 months after the cause of action first arose as contained in the Imo State University Law. He had urged the court to dismiss the suit with punitive cost.
In opposition, the claimant’s counsel J.I. Ogamba with P.N. Anyanwu submitted that there is no such dichotomy between a bursar appointed from within the staff and employees of the Imo State University and one appointed from outside the varsity. He had urged the court to discountenance the submissions by the defense counsel and also hold that the suit is not statute-barred in the overall the interest of justice.
Delivering the judgment, the presiding Judge, Justice Ibrahim Galadima resolved the objection against the University having not been raised timeously, finding that it was not properly and justifiably raised.
Justice Galadima further held that the provisions of the law relied upon by the claimant, inarguably referred to persons who had held the office of the bursar or the librarian of the 1st defendant varsity before the coming into force of the Imo State University Law No. 5 of 2004.
“I do not see how the claimant who was appointed in 2009 can by any stretch of imagination, be placed in the same category as those who had held office before 2004 when the said law took effect. The position of the claimant on this is, in the least, ill-conceived.” - Justice Galadima
