Headline

Court Orders Oyedepo’s University To Pay Ex-employee N10.3m As Damages, Terminal Benefit

Published

4 years ago

October 14, 2021

The National Industrial Court on Thursday ordered Covenant University, Ota, Ogun State, to pay its former employee, Dr. Adekunle Oyeyemi, the sum of N10.3 million as general damages, terminal benefit, and salary.

The judge, Justice Ayodele Obaseki-Osaghae, delivering judgment also declared that the termination of the claimant’s employment was wrongful and in breach of the contract of his employment.

The court ordered the payment of N8.2 million as the equivalent of his 24-month salary as general damages.

The sum of N1.7 million was ordered as terminal benefits and N344,635 being salary in lieu of notice, to be paid within 30 days.

The judge held that the university’s unilateral review of the claimant’s employment conversion to Senior Lecturer was wrongful.

The court stated that the action was unsolicited and was designed to make the workplace intolerable for him and force his exit.

Obaseki-Osaghae stated that there was no wrongdoing established before the court that necessitated the termination of the claimant’s appointment with immediate effect.

“The words with ‘immediate effect’ have the effect of stigmatization.

“The termination of the claimant’s employment is wrongful and not in accordance with international best practices.” the judge ruled.

From facts, the claimant submitted that he was employed as a full-time Director of the University’s Counseling Centre from Oct.1, 2007, to Nov.15, 2016, when his appointment was terminated without any misconduct.

In addition, he stated that he sent an internal memo to the Secretary of the University Board to state his position against the board’s resolution on the issue of tenure of Principal Officers and Directors.

He further said that he got a reply letter informing him that his tenure as the Director of the Centre had come to an end and he was being redeployed to the Department of Psychology as a Senior Lecturer, which was against his terms of employment.

The claimant’s counsel, Funmi Falana, submitted that the termination of her client’s employment was done contrary to the institution’s law.

She, therefore, sought an order of reinstatement amongst other reliefs.

The defendant, on its part, submitted that the claimant was invited to a roundtable discussion when his service was no longer required in its counselling centre.

The university also stated that when the claimant was informed of its decision to transfer him as a Senior Lecturer on contract, he consented to the arrangement.

The university stated that it decided to retain the claimant as a Senior Lecturer on contract as a kind gesture as he was over 60 years as at the time and was due for retirement.

Headline

Serbia Indicts Ex-minister, 12 Others Over Train Station Tragedy

Published

2 hours ago

September 16, 2025

Editor

Serbian prosecutors filed an updated indictment on Tuesday against 13 people, including a former minister, over a fatal railway station roof collapse that has triggered a wave of anti-government protests.

The prosecution said all those indicted, among them former construction minister Goran Vesic, face charges of “serious crimes against public safety” over the tragedy that killed 16 people last November.

“The indictment proposes that the Higher Court in Novi Sad order custody for all the defendants,” the prosecutor’s office said in a statement.

The roof collapse at the newly renovated station in Serbia’s second-largest city, Novi Sad, became a symbol of entrenched corruption and sparked almost daily protests.

Protesters first demanded a transparent investigation, but their calls soon escalated into demands for early elections.

The Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Novi Sad initially filed an indictment at the end of December, but judges returned it in April, requesting more information.

The accused were released or placed under house arrest following the decision.

The prosecutor’s office said it had complied with the judge’s request and had now completed the supplementary investigation.

The prosecutor specialising in organised crime and corruption in Belgrade is leading a separate, independent investigation into the tragedy.

That investigation is focused on 13 people, including Vesic and another former minister, Tomislav Momirovic, who headed the Construction Ministry before him.

In March, the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) launched a third, separate investigation into the possible misuse of EU funds for the station’s reconstruction.

AFP

Headline

Kazakhstan Bans Forced Marriage, Bride Kidnapping

Published

2 hours ago

September 16, 2025

Editor

Kazakhstan has banned forced marriages and bride kidnappings through a law that came into effect Tuesday in the Central Asian country, where the practice persists despite new attention being paid to women’s rights.

Forcing someone to marry is now punishable by up to 10 years in prison, Kazakh police said in a statement.

“These changes are aimed at preventing forced marriages and protecting vulnerable categories of citizens, especially women and adolescents,” it added.

Bride kidnappings have also been outlawed.

REAS ALSO:What To Know About Albania’s AI Minister, Diella

“Previously, a person who voluntarily released a kidnapped person could expect to be released from criminal liability. Now this possibility has been eliminated,” the police said.

There are no reliable statistics of forced marriage cases across the country, with no separate article in the criminal code prohibiting it until now.

A Kazakh lawmaker said earlier this year that the police had received 214 such complaints over the past three years.

The custom is also present in neighbouring Kyrgyzstan, where it mostly goes unpunished due to indifferent law enforcement and stigma surrounding whistleblowers.

The issue of women’s rights in Kazakhstan gained media attention in 2023 following the murder of a woman by her husband, a former minister, a case that shocked Kazakh society and prompted President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev to react.

“Some people hide behind so-called traditions and try to impose the practice of wife stealing. This blatant obscurantism cannot be justified,” Tokayev said last year.

AFP

Headline

Russia Arrests Woman For Detonating Bomb On Railway

Published

2 hours ago

September 16, 2025

Editor

Russia’s FSB security service said on Tuesday it had arrested a woman in her fifties accused of detonating explosives in a bid to sabotage the Trans-Siberian Railway.

The suspect was allegedly working on behalf of Ukrainian intelligence, the FSB said, in the latest incident of alleged covert activity during the countries’ conflict.

“In August 2025, following the instructions provided by the adversary, the suspect manufactured a homemade explosive device from publicly available components, placed it on the railway tracks and triggered it,” the Russian agency said.

“She recorded the moment of the explosion on her mobile phone camera and sent the footage as a report to the handler to receive a reward.”

The statement did not name the suspect but said she was born in 1974 and carried out the alleged attack in eastern Siberia’s Zabaikalsky region.

The FSB warned Russians that it was monitoring social networks and online messenger services such as Telegram and WhatsApp for evidence of Ukrainian services recruiting Russians to carry out sabotage.

Separately, the agency told state news agency TASS that a man had been sentenced to 18 years and six months for transporting explosives on behalf of a “pro-Ukrainian” group.

A resident of the Bryansk region, which borders Ukraine, had, the FSB said, established contact through the Telegram app with a banned “terrorist organisation”.

He allegedly retrieved explosives from a cache on the orders of this group before waiting for “further instructions”, according to the same source cited by TASS.

He was jailed by a military tribunal.

AFP