NIC judgement: Yasin, Agbede, 5 others file appeal, seek fair hearing

NIC judgement: Yasin, Agbede, 5 others file appeal, seek fair hearing

A former president of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Alhaji Najeem Usman Yasin, and six other leaders of the union including Alhaji Tajudeen Agbede have filed a notice of appeal, challenging a judgement of the National Industrial Court, which affirmed Alhaji Tajudeen Baruwa as validly elected president of the union.

Other appellants in the case are listed as Alhaji Aliyu Issa Ore, Comrade Kayode Agbeyangi, Alhaji Alhassan Haruna (313), Alhaji Aliyu Tanimu and Alhaji Hakeem Adeosun.

It will be recalled that the NIC sitting in Abuja, presided over by Justice Otebola Oyewunmi, on March 11, 2024 affirmed Alhaji Tajudeen Baruwa as validly elected president of the NURTW for a second term in office.

Not satisfied with the NIC judgement, Yasin, Agbede and five other appellants headed for the Court of Appeal, Abuja, seeking to upturn it.

According to the court documents obtained on Wednesday, the appellants stated that their grounds of Appeal were based on alleged errors made by the presiding judge at the NIC.

They stated, “The trial judge, His Lordship, erred in law when she overruled the appellants’ Notice of Preliminary Objection filed on November 22, 2023 and proceeded to hear and determine the case on the basis of the Respondents Originating Summons in the face of serious unresolved dispute of facts in Respondents’ Affidavit Evidence in support of the Originating Summons and thereby denied the appellants the rights to fair trial and fair hearing.

Based on the said errors, the appellants are praying that the appeal court should “allow the appeal and set aside the decision of the National Industrial Court contained in the Judgement of Hon. Justice O. O Oyewunmi for being a breach of the appellants’ right to fair hearing.”

The appellants also prayed that the appeal court “to order pleadings in the matter and remit back to the lower court for hearing by another judge of the National Industrial Court in the interest of fair hearing.”

Court order