Headline

Edo: Court Nullifies Sack Of College Staff, Grants N4m Each As Damages

Published

4 years ago

January 24, 2022

The Benin Division of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria on Monday nullified the sack of workers of the Edo State College of Agriculture, Iguoriakhi and ordered a compensation of N4m each for all the affected workers and a general damage of N500,000 to the claimants.

The suit marked: NICN/BEN/25/2018 had Mr Imhenrion O. Martin, Mr Adorolo O. Michael, Mr Osayande Clifford, Mrs. Mercy Ozabor, and Mr Eikhor Nosakhare Abel as claimants while Edo State Government; state Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources; the Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Provost of the College of Agriculture, Iguoriakhi, and the Governing Council of the College served as defendants.

Delivering her judgment, Justice Abiola A. Adewemimo ordered the defendants to compensate the claimants the N4m each within 30 days, adding that failure to compensate the defendants numbering about 90 attracts an annual interest of ten per cent.

The Justice held that the state government was wrong to have claimed that the workers were temporary workers.

She further further held that their letters of employment indicated a period of probation which does not translate to temporary workers.

“This court is to check labour practice and for the defendant to say their employment was temporary connotes unfair labour practices.”

Justice Adewemimo further held that even though an employer has the right to terminate employments, such actions must be done in accordance with established conditions of service, adding that Edo State Government did not do that in this case.

Justice Adewemimo said though the government did not show any evidence that the school was no longer in existence but that it was being restructured and therefore it would be difficult to reinstate the workers as demanded.

She said the special damages in the form of salaries and promotions claimed by the workers could not be given because they did not prove them with the statutorily required documents to enjoy such benefit.

Reacting to the judgment, counsel to the workers, Matthew Edaghese, Esq., said the court in its wisdom held that the so-called termination of appointment was null and void, adding that it negates all known and relevant labour laws.

“It was a reckless executive indiscretion. This is a warning to the executive arm of government that they are governed by the laws of the land and they are not laws unto themselves,” he added.

The workers instituted the court action in August 2018 as a result of the termination of their appointment by the state government on the excuse that the school is being restructured.

Headline

Welcome Home, Israel Confirms Return Of 20 Hostages From Gaza

Published

21 hours ago

October 13, 2025

Editor

Israel said that the last 20 living hostages released by Hamas on Monday had arrived in the country.

“Welcome home,” the foreign ministry wrote in a series of posts on X, hailing the return of Matan Angrest, Gali Berman, Ziv Berman, Elkana Bohbot, Rom Braslavski, Nimrod Cohen, David Cunio, Ariel Cunio, Evyatar David, Guy Gilboa Dalal, Maxim Herkin, Eitan Horn, Segev Kalfon, Bar Kuperstein, Omri Miran, Eitan Mor, Yosef Haim Ohana, Alon Ohel, Avinatan Or and Matan Zangauker.

AFP

Headline

20 Members Of Gang Blacklisted By US Escape Guatemala Prison

Published

24 hours ago

October 13, 2025

Editor

Twenty members of a gang designated a “foreign terrorist organisation” by the United States have escaped from detention in Guatemala, a prison chief said Sunday.

The members of the Barrio 18 gang “evaded security controls” at the Fraijanes II facility, prison director Ludin Godinez said at a news conference.

He received “an intelligence report” on Friday warning about the “possible escape” from the prison, which is southeast of the capital, Guatemala City.

Godinez said they were investigating possible acts of corruption.

Washington last month blacklisted Barrio 18, an El Salvador-based gang which has a reputation for violence and extortion, as part of its crackdown on drug trafficking.

The US embassy in Guatemala condemned the prison escape as “utterly unacceptable.”

“The United States designated members of this heinous group as the terrorists they are and will hold accountable anyone who has provided, provides, or decides to provide material support to these fugitives or other gang members,” the embassy said on X.

It called on the Guatemalan government to “act immediately and vigorously to recapture these terrorists.”

According to Interior Minister Francisco Jimenez, there are about 12,000 gang members and collaborators in Guatemala, while another 3,000 are in prison.

The country’s homicide rate has increased from 16.1 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2024 to 17.65 this year, more than double the world average, according to the Centre for National Economic Research.

According to the Salvadoran government, the gangs Barrio 18 and Mara Salvatrucha, better known as MS-13, are responsible for the deaths of about 200,000 people over three decades.

The two gangs once controlled an estimated 80 percent of El Salvador, which had one of the highest homicide rates in the world.

Headline

South Africa Bus Crash Kills 40 Including Malawi, Zimbabwe Nationals

Published

24 hours ago

October 13, 2025

Editor

At least 40 people, including nationals of Malawi and Zimbabwe, were killed when a passenger bus rolled down an embankment in South Africa, a provincial transport minister said Monday.

The bus travelling to Zimbabwe crashed around 90 kilometres (55 miles) from the border on Sunday after the driver apparently lost control, Limpopo province transport minister Violet Mathye said.

“They are still working on the scene, but 40 bodies have already been confirmed to date,” Mathye told the Newzroom Afrika channel. The dead included a 10-month-old girl, she said.

Thirty-eight people were in hospital and rescuers were searching for other victims, she told eNCA media.

The bus was travelling from the southern city of Gqeberha, around 1,500 kilometres away, and its passengers included Malawians and Zimbabweans who were working in South Africa. The crash may have been caused by driver fatigue or a mechanical fault, the minister said.

South Africa has a sophisticated and busy road network with a high rate of road deaths, blamed mostly on speeding, reckless driving and unroadworthy vehicles.

AFP