The Court of Appeal, Abuja, on Friday ordered the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) to pay N2.5 billion judgement proceeds awarded to 110 former workers sacked by the university nearly three decades ago.
The workers were unlawfully dismissed by the university in 1996.
In two separate and unanimous rulings, a three‑member panel of judges ordered the CBN to immediately release the funds to the former ABU employees without further delay.
The court criticised the CBN for wasting public resources on legal actions intended to frustrate the payment.
The judgement read that “There is no lawful reason for the CBN to file this appeal”.
“The conduct of the CBN in opposing the payment is reckless and reprehensible,” Okon Abang who read the lead ruling of the Court of Appeal held on Friday, noting that ABU had deposited the money with the bank for settlement of the judgement debt. “It is not the duty of the CBN to act as advocate; its responsibility is to implement court judgments in the absence of any contrary order.”
The appeals followed a National Industrial Court’s ruling which held that the 110 workers were unlawfully dismissed by the then-sole administrator of ABU, and ordered that their entitlements be paid. Both ABU and the CBN later challenged the use of garnishee proceedings to enforce the payment.
Mr Abang, alsos said in the lead judgement that CBN could face heavy sanctions if it continued to withhold the money, which has been in its custody since 2018, pending payment by ABU to the affected staff members.
Mr Abang rejected the CBN’s argument that the former workers could not use garnishee proceedings to access the funds. The court also dismissed the claim that the consent of the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice (AGF) was required before payment could be effected.
He held that the workers were entitled to pursue garnishee proceedings against the CBN to recover their funds.
Lawyer criticised
The court further condemned the lawyer representing the CBN for supporting actions that delayed justice for the workers. “The lawyer ought to have advised the bank not to frustrate the National Industrial Court judgement. This action has prolonged the suffering and hardship of the workers,” Mr Abang said.
He added that “The lawyer owes a duty to the court, the country, and the 110 workers to ensure they are not unjustly denied the fruits of their court victory. Their judicial time has been wasted unnecessarily.”
The Court of Appeal also awarded N5 million against the CBN and another N5 million against ABU to be paid to the workers as litigation costs, in addition to the N2.5 billion judgment sum.
Background
The legal dispute involving the 110 disengaged staff members ABU, Zaria, has lingered for nearly 29 years. The staff members’ employments were terminated in 1996, and they have yet to receive their entitlements.
The matter resurfaced in 2012, when the former employees approached the courts after the university failed to implement recommendations from various visitation panels, which had advised that they be reinstated and paid all outstanding entitlements.
In 2015, the court ruled in favour of the workers, ordering ABU to reinstate them and pay N2.5 billion in entitlements. The university’s failure to comply led to a garnishee proceeding in 2017, targeting ABU’s accounts at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
While the garnishee was ongoing, ABU and CBN sought a stay, filing an appeal at the Court of Appeal in November 2018, challenging the 2015 judgment. The appellate court, however, dismissed the appeal on 24 May 2021, affirming the lower court’s decision.
The National Industrial Court on 27 January 2022 issued an absolute garnishee order, directing the CBN to pay the judgment sum to the former staff. Despite this, the N2.5 billion remains unpaid.
ABU would later attempted to present fresh evidence to delay enforcement of the judgment, but that motion was dismissed by the appellate court In June 2025.
ABU and CBN however returned to court to challenge the use of garnishee proceedings to enforce the payment.
Their application was dismissed, leaving the former staff’s entitlement intact.
Workers’ lawyer speaks
Speaking after the Court of Appeal ruling, Adegboyega Kolade, lawyer for the 110 former ABU staff members, described the judgement as a long-awaited end to a decades long struggle and expressed gratitude “that the matter has finally come to an end.”
“The appeals have been deemed oppressive, wasteful of government funds, and inhumane,” he said.
He traced the origins of the dispute to 1996 to 1998, during the tenure of the late head of state Sani Abacha, who appointed a general, Mamman Kontagora, as sole administrator of ABU, with an agenda that led to what he described as ethnic and religious cleansing.
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“Christians and southerners were largely removed unjustly,” he said. “Visitation panels were set up, three or four in total, to review these decisions.
Their recommendation was that the dismissals be annulled. While most universities complied, ABU refused, continuing its agenda. Efforts by dignitaries and personalities to intervene on behalf of the judgement creditors yielded nothing.”
He recalled that the former staff members eventually approached the courts, securing a judgement on 30 November 2015, and lamented that since then, all attempts to enforce the ruling were frustrated, often in collusion with the CBN.
