The National Industrial Court Abuja on Friday dismissed a suit filed by two retirees of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) for payment of pension entitlements for lack of evidence.
The claimants, Sule Mohammed and Yakubu Omata were retired from the agency as a result of government policy, shortly before they clocked 10 years in service, to be eligible for pension.
Justice Rakiya Haastrup, said that the claimants, challenged the non-payment of their pension after retirement on the grounds that their colleagues that joined the organisation and retired at the same time, were enrolled on the pensions scheme and were being paid.
Haastrup said the claimants also averred that they had spent 10 years in service of the defendant before their retirement.
The judge, however, held that the sole issue for the court to resolve was “whether the claimants have sufficiently proved their case to entitle them to the reliefs as sought in this case against the defendant”.
She said having looked at the statement of the claimants, it was to the effect that they worked for the defendant from Sept.29, 1997 to April 23, 2007.
She, therefore, said :“ from my arithmetic knowledge, the period is for nine years and six months”.
Haastrup further said that the computation of the claimants’ names during the retirement exercise as having spent 10 years was done in error.
The judge added also that the defendant’s witness testified that a minimum of 10 years service was required under the old Pensions Decree 1979 before one could be entitled to pension.
She said it was the old pension decree that was applicable to the claimants and they could not, therefore, rely on the provisions of Section 1 (c) of the Pension Reform Act, 2014.
The judge held that the claimants failed to prove their claims of reliefs by credible and cogent evidence.
“ The claimants must establish their entitlements to the reliefs as claimed by credible evidence, failure of which they are bound to fail in their reliefs, which is the case here.
“I hold that the evidence elicited by the claimants is not credible to support their claims in this suit against the defendant”, she said.
The judge said that all the reliefs sought by the claimants in the suit, failed in its entirety and accordingly dismissed the suit.
News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the claimants who were security officers with the defendant were retired due to government policy which had outsourced the claimants cadre in the Public Service
NAN also reports that this action took place before the claimants were eligible for pension.
The claimants had sought for a declaration that they were entitled to pension having served the Agency for 10 years.
They also sought for an order of the court directing the defendant to pay arrears of their pension from 2007 to date.
The claimants in their reliefs equally sought for N500,000 as costs of prosecuting the suit.
(NAN)
