Commissioner for Education lacks the powers to alter governing council's decision, says Court

By DADA AYOKHAI 

The National Industrial Court of Nigeria, sitting in Benin City, Edo State, has  unequivocally declared that the Edo State Commissioner for Education lacks the powers to alter and or change the decision of the Governing Council of the state-owned Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma.

In the judgment on suit No: NICN/BEN/26/2020 in Asigene Peter against Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma and others, which included the Edo State Commissioner for Education as defendants, the Court presided over by His Lordship Hon. Justice A. A. Adewemimo, voided the dismissal of Mr. Asigene Peter from the services of the university as a result of the intervention and interference of the State Commissioner for Education in the disciplinary process of the University.
 
The Court specifically held that the Governing Council being the final organ on the discipline of staff of the University cannot be over ruled by the State Commissioner for Education.

The Court therefore ordered that the Mr. Peter Asigene should be reinstated into his former position before his dismissal with all his due entitlements and emoluments paid from the date of his purported dismissal till the time he is finally reinstated by the defendants (the university).

Barr. Jimoh Ejegbai had, as the State Commissioner for Education, overturned several decisions reached by the University’s Governing Council in a swoop, including the Governing Council’s approved punishment or decision on Mr. Asigene Peter, a non-academic staff and Chairman of the university’s Non-Academic Staff Union of Education and Associated Institutions (NASU).

 Barr. Ejegbai’s interference, as the Commissioner for Education, led to the change of the Governing Council’s punishment from demotion to dismissal of Mr. Asigene Peter.
 
Dissatisfied with his dismissal, Mr. Peter Asigene approached the Court and asked the Court to, among other things, declare that the State Commissioner for Education lacks the capacity, powers or vires to unilaterally alter and or change the decision of the Governing Council of the University.

Chairman of the University’s Branch of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Dr. Monday Igbafen hailed the judgment, saying that the said court judgment of March 25, 2021 is a vindication of the Union’s recent outcry against abuse of the University’s laws and due process.

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