- Battle for reinstatement, payment of outstanding salaries
- My wife deserted me, I can’t feed my family, embattled worker cries out.
What would make a court disobey its own judgement? That is the question on the lips of Tajudeen Sulaiman and Adewoyin Adebowale, two officials of the Osun State High Court 30 months after they were suspended from office and more than one year after a court judgement that ruled that they should be reinstated. GBENGA ADERANTI writes on the predicament of the embattled workers.
When Tajudeen Sulaiman and Adewoyin Adebowale set out for work on November 20, 2020, they had no idea of the ugly fate that awaited them in office. But almost three years after, they are left to wish that the said date was never a part of their lives.
For 10 and 20 years respectively, Adebowale and Sulaiman went in and out of the Osun State High Court where they worked as storekeeper and maintenance officer without any hitch or harassment until the alleged loss of some printing papers resulted in what has now become an endless suspension.
It is more than a year since the court acquitted the suspended workers and dismissed the case instituted against them, but their employer, Osun State High Court of Justice, remains adamant, clinging to their 30 months’ salaries like the pincers of a lobster. The duo also remains out in the cold because their employer refused to recall them.
Recalling the events that led to his suspension together with Adebowale almost three years ago, Sulaiman said there had been verbal advice from the Chief Registrar of Osun State High Court that the staff should learn to help one another so as to make life easier for themselves and ensure that everyone achieved the goals set for them.
“So, on that fateful day on November 20, 2020, there was a directive that Adebowale should go and repair a printer. So I had no hesitation acceding to his request when he asked me to assist him, particularly because of the earlier counsel from the Chief Registrar,” Sulaiman said.
His decision to help Adebowale, however, turned out to be a costly move. Sulaiman said since it was a Friday and it was already about 5 p.m., he told Adebowale that rather than push the printing machine meant for repairs into the store, they should take it straight to the engineer who would repair it.
Based on his suggestion, he said, Adebowale returned some printing papers he was about to take to the store to his office while they took the printer to the engineer for repairs. But by the time they returned to the office the following Monday, the printing paper he kept in the office before he left on Friday was nowhere to be found.
Unfortunately, while they were busy looking for the printing papers a colleague had gone to report that he saw Adebowale and Sulaiman going home with a printer and some printing papers. Consequently, the two were queried and later sent on indefinite suspension.
In the query dated November 26, 2020, and signed by J.F. Olorunfemi on behalf of the Registrar, Sulaiman was accused of conniving with Adebowale to pack six cartons of paper and two printers into his car.
The query reads: “You were reported to have said that you were taking them to one of the Hon judges, which was later discovered to be false. Your action is tantamount to dishonesty which is in contravention of Rule 04301 of the Public Service Rules.
“Will you therefore explain to the satisfaction of the Chief Registrar why disciplinary action should not be taken against you for your misconduct?
“Your reply should reach this office within 24 hours upon receipt of the letter.”
Sulaiman said that he and Adebowale were later suspended and dragged to the police station while they were charged to court the following Monday.
Adebowale said simultaneously as the case was going on, the Osun State High Court of Justice set up a disciplinary committee to investigate them.
He said: “As we were facing the disciplinary committee, we were also going to court for litigation. It was later that the committee said we should go and face the proceedings in court. Up till now, we have not seen the committee’s report.”
Adebowale said the stress was so much that he slumped during one of the court sessions.
He said: “Even during the court session, I slumped to the extent that the magistrate stood up from her seat.
“I was admitted for two days. Thereafter, they continued the case. But in the long run, we were discharged and acquitted.”
That, however, did not translate to a better life for the embattled duo.
He said: “Almost one and a half years after the judgment, there has been no appeal, nothing. One year and four months after, we are still at home and our salaries remain unpaid.
“Today, 22 August, they invited us to the panel and asked us if we were submitting our salaries to the salary section. We said yes. The State government has been paying our salaries, but after receiving it from the bank; we return it to the salary section of the high court.”
Asked what he thinks could have been responsible for the escalation of the matter, he said he had no issue with anybody. He said it was a directive that they should be taken to the police station rather than settle the matter internally.
“The proper thing should have been to constitute a panel, but they first took us to the police station and charged us to court the following Monday,” he said.
For almost three years that they have been suspended, life according to Adebowale, has been hellish, particularly because he is asthmatic and has had to eke out a living by riding okada (commercial motorcycle).
“I am an asthma patient. I get money to buy my drugs with the help of friends, family members, and the church where I worship.
“I am not well and there is no money to take care of my family. There is also no money to pay the house rent. I am in debt,” he said.
Asked why his employers, who are part of the judiciary, would not obey its own judgement, Adebowale said it was difficult to explain, adding that he has lost so many things, including his wife.
“My wife left me. My children and I have been finding things difficult, especially feeding
because we were asked by our employers not to leave our present environment. I mean Osun State.
“Things are in bad shape for me. The situation has affected me physically and economically. Things are not good for me at all.”
He therefore called on the Osun State High Court to do something about their situation.
“I want them to reinstate my colleague and I, and pay all our outstanding salaries. All my promotions that they delayed, they should give me back,” he said.
Counsel petitions Osun State Chief Judge
Towards getting a reprieve, their lawyer, Dele Abbas Esq., has written a petition to the Osun State Chief Judge, Hon Adepele Ojo.
The petition is titled, ‘Re: suspension, arrest, detention, prosecution, restriction of movement and confiscation of salaries of Messr T. T. Sulaiman and A.A. Adewoyin of the Maintenance Department of the High Court of Justice of Osun State since November 2020’
Part of the petition reads: “Our client informed us that on Friday, the 20th of November, 2020, around 4:PM, there were six cartons of A4 papers on his table meant to be distributed to various departments(s) that requested for it.
“Because of the time and the fact that Tajudeen Sulaiman was on working leave and he did not want to keep the paper on his table, he decided to move them to the main store for safekeeping, thus he invited me, Adewoyin Adebowale, to his office to assist him in moving the six cartons of the said A4 papers into his car for the purpose of taking them to the main store.
“While this arrangement was going on Engineer Ogundipe called him to say that he had arrived at his office and that he should bring the two faulty printers belonging to the High Court in his custody for repairs.
“At that point in time, they changed their mind to return them to his table in his office because they did not want to carry the paper out of the premises because it was a Friday, and also to enable them meet Engineer Ogundipe in his office at Ogo-Oluwa before it was late.
“The both took the faulty printers to Engineer Ogundupe’s office at Ogo-Oluwa on that 20th day of November 2020, and the same were returned to the High Court on the 23rd of November 2020 after the repair, and the purported missing/stolen six cartons of A4 papers were found on the table Mr. Tajudeen Sulaiman Tunji and same were distributed to various departments that requested for it.”
While the duo felt they had done what was expected of them, unknown to them, it was an infraction.
According to the petition, the two high court workers were arrested and detained upon a
complaint lodged by the Chief Registrar of the High Court, and both were subsequently charged to the Magistrate Court Oke-Fia. Osogbo in charge no MOS/570C/2020.
They were later suspended from duty via a letter through the office of the Chief Registrar of the High Court of Justice of Osun State, which was signed by J.F. Olorunfemi (ACR) and dated 30 November 2020.
As the case was ongoing, another letter was served to the workers, this time by the Secretary of the Senior Staff Disciplinary Committee of the High Court of Justice, dated 15th December 2020, “informing them to appear before it on the 21st and 22nd December 2020 on the same issue that was pending before the Chief Magistrate Court of Osun State.
“Our clients also informed us that they both appeared before the said Disciplinary Committee and stated their own side of the story, but up till now, the report of the said committee has not been known to our clients.’
But luckily for the embattled workers, the court eventually acquitted and discharged them of any wrongdoing on July 1, 2022. Sadly, however, since the case was determined, their suspensions were not lifted, neither were they allowed to access their salaries, though their employees never appealed the Magistrate Court judgment.
The petition also drew the attention of the Osun State Chief Judge to the fact that after the expiration of the suspended workers’ suspension from duty post, they had never been called back to resume work.
Thirty months have passed without revisiting or reviewing the case; against the extant public service rules, leaving them to suffer without justification and without committing any sin whatsoever even with the current economic hardship in the country.
The counsel to the embattled workers appealed to the Chief Judge of Osun State to “without further delay direct the office of the Chief Registrar of the High Court of Justice in Osun State to immediately lift the suspension placed on our clients since November 2020, recall them and pay them their salaries and entitlements from the day of suspension and confiscation of their salaries as soon as possible.
“Finally, your Lordship sir, if we do not hear a positive response from your office within 14 days of the receipt of this letter, we may be compelled to make use of another avenue to seek redress for our clients, including informing the National Judicial Council (NJC) to intervene in this matter, ” the petition said.
Osun High Court source reacts
Reacting, a top officer of the Osun State High Court, Osogbo, who asked not to be named because he was not mandated to speak on the matter, disclosed that the Chief Judge of Osun State was aware of the petition concerning the two staff members.
“But I can assure you that Justice Ojo is on top of the matter since her office received the petition.
“As I am speaking to you, she has set up a committee to look into the matter so as to resolve it.
“The committee has just been formed and they will come up with recommendations that will be followed thereafter.
“I will inform you when they commence work,” he assured.
