A lecturer, Inih Ebong, unjustly sacked by the University of Uyo (Uniuyo) over 22 years ago, has won a final victory against the university at the Court of Appeal, Calabar, Cross River State.

The appellate court, on Tuesday, dismissed an appeal filed by the University of Uyo for a stay of the execution of a 2020 judgement of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria, which ordered the university to reinstate Mr Ebong and pay him all his entitlements and damages.

“It’s all over. It’s all over. Everything is over,” said Mr Ebong’s lawyer, Nse William, who confirmed the development to PREMIUM TIMES Tuesday afternoon.

“We give glory to God,” he added.

“You know, wherever there’s a wrong, there’s always a remedy,” Mr William said, adding that he was happy that the lecturer was alive to witness the victory.

‘It has been so long’

An elated Mr Ebong spoke with our reporter on Tuesday about his legal victory.

“I feel very happy,” he said.

“The road is now as clear as the apian way for me to enforce that judgment (of the industrial court). Whether the vice-chancellor likes it or not, he must pay that money. It is his karma.”

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The lecturer thanked Nigerians who stood by him throughout his travail.

He thanked the Nigerian billionaire Femi Otedola, who sponsored his medical treatment, and a human rights lawyer, Inibehe Effiong, for travelling from Lagos to Uyo to visit him and for speaking out against the injustice meted out to him.

Mr Ebong’s wife, Uduak, expressed her happiness about the court victory.

“It has been so long,” she said.

“The whole thing started when I gave birth to my first daughter. All my three children were born into the struggle. Today, my first daughter is 21 years old and is in the university.

“Our kids have been our great supporters.”

Uduak narrated how, on Sunday, they were thinking about where to get money for the lawyer’s transport fare to Calabar for the Appeal Court judgment. Then, out of the blue, Mr Ebong’s former schoolmate at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, credited her husband’s account with N20,000.

“We have been so blessed to receive support from kind Nigerians,” she said.

False accusations
Mr Ebong was an associate professor at the theatre arts department when Uniuyo unjustly sacked him in 2002 over a false accusation that he abandoned his duty.

The lecturer was reputed for his resistance to and criticism of maladministration, mismanagement and corruption in the university.

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Akpan Ekpo, a recently retired professor of economics, was the vice-chancellor of the university when authorities moved unjustly against the lecturer. A certain Peter Effiong was the registrar during the period.

PREMIUM TIMES, in October, published an investigative report on how Uniuyo ruined Mr Ebong’s career with unproven sexual assault allegations.

The 73-year-old lecturer had been diagnosed with cardiac failure in October 2020 and was dying before Mr Otedola, stepped in to take care of his medical treatment, following a PREMIUM TIMES report.

Being out of a job for several years, Mr Ebong could hardly feed himself and his family, let alone take care of his medical treatment.

Shortly after his sacking in 2002, Uniuyo published a disclaimer on Mr Ebong in Punch newspaper, apparently to get other potential employers to avoid him.

Industrial court judgment
Since 2002, when his appointment was terminated, Mr Ebong has won several court cases against the University of Uyo.

The outstanding victory was the January 2020 judgment of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria, which ordered the university to reinstate the lecturer and pay him compensation.

“The stoppage of the Claimant’s salary, the indefinite suspension of him from duties, and the purported termination of his appointment by the Defendants without due process were malicious, ultra vires, and unlawful, and therefore null, void and of no effect whatsoever,” Justice M. A. Namtari declared in his judgment in the case instituted by Mr Ebong in 2017.

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The court ordered Uniuyo to withdraw the termination letter, reinstate Mr Ebong, and pay all his salaries, allowances, and entitlements that would have accrued to him since 1 August 2001, when his salary was stopped, and from 28 March 2002, when his appointment was wrongfully and unlawfully terminated.

The court also ordered the university to pay Mr Ebong the equivalent of his full annual salaries and allowances for the 2001/2002, 2007/2008, and 2014/2015 academic years he should have gone on sabbatical leave in accordance with the terms and conditions of his employment if his appointment had not been unlawfully suspended and later terminated.

The university, in addition, was ordered to pay Mr Ebong N10 million as damages.

Uniuyo had filed three separate applications at the Court of Appeal against Mr Ebong’s victory at the industrial court. The appellate court struck out two of them, remaining the last one, which the court has dismissed.

Since all cases from the Industrial Court end at the Court of Appeal, the management of the University of Uyo is now expected to implement the judgement of the Industrial Court.

When contacted on Tuesday, Fidelis Iteshi, Uniuyo’s lawyer, declined comment on the matter.

“I can’t say anything until I get a copy of the judgment,” he said.
PREMIUM TIMES