The National Industrial Court of Nigeria sitting in Abuja has fixed May 30, 2022 for hearing of motions brought before it by the counsel to aggrieved federal directors challenging the process of selection of new Permanent Secretaries in the Federal Civil Service. Her Ladyship Hon. Justice Obaseki-Osaghae said the court adjourned till further date for all the motions in the suit to be heard at once and decided accordingly.
Justice Obaseki-Osaghae, however, asked the parties to take a date for hearing of all the motions base on their merits. Counsels to the defendants, the Head of Service of the Federation, Permanent Secretary Selection Committee, Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice who was later joined in the suit and represented by the Ministry of Justice, filed multiple applications challenging the jurisdiction of the Court to hear the matter. But the Counsel to the aggrieved directors, Bemdoo Hassan said they were in Court to challenge the process of selection of the permanent secretaries in the Federal Civil Service that was just concluded.
He said despite the defendant challenging the jurisdiction of the court, the issue was a labour matter and the court was the right place to go adding that he was optimistic that justice would be done in the end. It would be recalled that about 17 directors were disqualified by the screening committee from taking the permanent secretary written examination which was held on the 21th February, 2022 on grounds that they were “ghost” workers.
Worried by the development, the aggrieved directors approached the National Industrial Court of Nigeria before Her Ladyship Hon. Justice Obaseki-Osaghae with motion ex-parte seeking to be allowed to participate in the permanent secretary selection process as well as carry out the other processes. Most of the affected directors claimed that they have been working with the Federal Service for over 30 years and receiving their salaries regularly but alleged that they were denied opportunity to update their records on IPPIS platform in order to print the IPPIS information slip.
The aggrieved directors sue the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Folasade Yemi-Esan for charges of contempt of Court, on the grounds that the Head of Service and the Integrated Personnel Payroll and Information System Consultant refused to comply with earlier court orders to open the IPPIS Portal for participating directors to update their records as well as participate in the processes for the selection of Permanent Secretaries.
