All Staff of the Nigeria Union Teachers (NUT), across the nation have been thrown into sad moods as Supreme Court set aside Appeal Court’s Judgment against the Staff of the Academic Staff Union of Secondary Schools (ASUSS).
It was gathered that NUT and ASUSS have been in the court of law since the year 2008, fighting for who is to have control over the other.
9news Nigeria learnt that in 2008, the then Federal Minister of Labour deemed it fit to approve the establishment of the Academic Staff Union of Secondary Schools and directed the Registrar of Trade Union to issue a Certificate of Registration to the secondary school teachers. With this directive, NUT was now restricted to control only the primary schools and this according to the report, did not go down well with Nigerian Union of Teachers.
To this end, NUT then filed a suit at the Federal High Court, seeking for an Order to restrain the Ministry and the Registrar of the Trade Union not to issue the Certificate.
The suit was said to have been challenged by ASUSS on the ground of jurisdiction. The Court of Appeal then upheld the ruling of the Federal High Court. And this judgment was further challenged by ASUSS at the Supreme Court.
Mr. Centas Nwaeze of the Supreme Court, set aside the Court of Appeal judgment, saying that the panel that was set up to look into the matter was not properly constituted.
Speaking shortly after the judgment, the National President of ASUSS, Comr. Samuel Omaji, commended the Supreme Court Justices for their reasoning and fairness.
According to him, “We came from the Court of Appeal to the Supreme Court, because we felt that what they did was very wrong. The battle was a mighty one, we have been on it since the year 2014. We thank God that today we have gotten the victory,” he said.
Also speaking, the Counsel to ASUSS, Barr. Afolabi Olayiwola said that with the judgment, thirty years of litigation has come to an end. He therefore congratulated all secondary school teachers across the nation on their victory, saying that his joy is that ASUSS has now been empowered to control the activities of all secondary schools in Nigeria.
