Posted by The PM News on
The N7 billion suit filed by 406 former employees of Afribank Plc against the bank, begins at the Justice O.A. Dabiri High Court, Igbosere, Lagos Island, tomorrow.
The N7 billion suit filed by 406 former employees of Afribank Plc against the bank, begins at the Justice O.A. Dabiri High Court, Igbosere, Lagos Island, tomorrow.
The case was adjourned on 3 July, 2008, till 23 September, 2008, for definite hearing. The suit had passed through a pre-trial conference at the Justice (Mrs.) Adefope-Okojie court with the judge recommending that the case should proceed to full trial when the two parties could not reach a compromise.
Afribank had reportedly claimed that the claims of the retirees were too high claiming that it had earlier furnished the former employees with what it could pay through their counsel (not the current counsel).
The 406 former employees were retired from the bank in July 2004, but had to resort to legal action over the computation of their terminal benefits, including non-payment of pensions. The retirees claimed, through their new counsel, Prince Ademola Adewale of Divine Chambers, Ikeja, that they were grossly shortchanged in the computation of their benefits, adding that their pension scheme was jettisoned in the process, though such was anchored on a pension fund tucked somewhere.
The former Afribank employees, comprising management, senoir and junior workers, are praying the high court to order their former employers to recompute their benefits which, according to a Lagos-based pension consultant, amounted to N7 billion.
In the retirees' amended statement of claims, he urged Justice Dabiri to order Afribank to produce the bank's General Memorandum of October 27, 1998, adding that clauses in the document contained the correct ways of computing the said benefits.
The claimants averred that pages 25 and 26 of the General Memorandum would shed more light on the matter before the court, adding that the document was in use in the case of Mr. B.A. Sanni who was retired on 17 February, 2000, and that others retired in that year, were beneficiaries of the provisions of the document.
The retirees averred that page 26 of the memorandum referred to the Trust Deed and Rules establishing Afribank's Staff Pension Fund. Though Afribank is yet to file a reply to the amended statement of claims, it appears that all is now set for a legal firework between the bank and the employees sent packing in July 2004, in the wake of banks' recapitalisation scheme of the Central Bank of Nigeria.