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Ex-aides drag minister to court over unpaid salaries

Anthony Iwuoma

Two former aides of Minister of Communications, Adebayo Shittu, have sued him for allegedly owing them N21.5 million in unpaid salaries and allowances.

The former aides, Razaq Olubodun, a Personal Assistant and Victor Oluwadamilare, a Special Assistant on Media, dragged their former boss before the National Industrial Court (NIC), in Abuja.

In separate suits filed by their counsels, Adewale Lawal, the Plaintiffs are asking the court to order the minister to pay them the claim.

In his suit, numbered NICN/Abj/132/2019, Olubodun wants Shittu to pay him N9.8 million being his salaries and allowances for 24 months, claiming that the Federal Government had paid the money to the minister.

In his own suit, NICN/Abj/133/2019, Oluwadamilare, Oluwadamilare wanted the communications minister to pay him N11.7 million, being alleged backlog of his salaries and allowances for 28 months.

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The duo were asking the NIC to declare the non-payment of their entitlements, as ‘wrong, unlawful’ and against the constitution of the land, insisting that the court should order the minister to pay them according to the directive of the Federal Government’s on payment of aides to the ministers of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Olubodun claimed to have been paid only N1 million throughout the period he worked for the minister while, Oluwadamilare said he was paid only three times during his 28 months of service to Shittu, which amounted to N2.3 million.

The Plaintiffs were also seeking an order on the minister to pay them N50 million each as well as paying them their full taxed costs of the prosecution of the suits.

The duo accused the minister of “intimidation, harassment, draconian and Machiavellian approach”, adding that they had been subjected to suffering, ridicule, and untold hardship as a result of the denial of their rights by the minister.

Meanwhile, no date has been fixed for hearing of the case.

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