The National Industrial Court of Nigeria, Lagos Division, has ordered Oceanic Bank to withdraw the dismissal of a former employee, Mr. Tajudeen Balogun, and awarded him N5.5m in damages after finding that the bank wrongfully terminated his employment based on incorrect information supplied by Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife.
Justice Maureen Esowe, who delivered judgment in Suit No. NICN/LA/471/2022, held that the bank breached its disciplinary procedures and denied the claimant a fair hearing before dismissing him over allegations linked to discrepancies in his academic records.
The court also awarded N500,000 as costs of litigation in favour of Balogun.
“The defendant breached the terms contained in its staff handbook and denied the claimant fair hearing,” Justice Esowe held, adding that the dismissal was founded on an allegation of certificate forgery that was never disclosed to the claimant or subjected to any disciplinary process.
Balogun, through his counsel, Gbenga Paseda & Associates, had asked the court to declare his dismissal unlawful, malicious, null, and void, arguing that it was based on a false allegation of certificate forgery traced to an error committed by OAU during a verification exercise conducted by his employer.
The dispute began in November 2005 when Oceanic Bank International Limited dismissed Balogun instead of confirming his appointment. According to court documents, the dismissal letter did not state any reason for the decision, nor was the employee accused of misconduct at the time.
According to court records, the bank forwarded confidential reference forms to OAU on February 28 and June 1, 2005, requesting verification of the claimant’s academic credentials and character.
In response, the university reportedly informed the bank that Balogun graduated with a third-class degree, contrary to the Second-Class Lower degree reflected on the certificate he had submitted during his recruitment.
The conflicting information allegedly led the bank to conclude that the certificate presented by the employee was forged.
Balogun was subsequently dismissed in November 2005.
However, the claimant maintained that he was never informed of any allegation relating to forgery, nor was he invited to explain the discrepancy before the decision was taken.
The reason for his dismissal only became known to him several years later when he visited the Department of Agricultural Engineering at OAU in 2011 while processing documents for postgraduate studies.
During that visit, he discovered the correspondence exchanged between the bank and the university regarding his academic records.
The court found that OAU later admitted that the information supplied to the bank was erroneous.
According to Justice Esowe, academic records are sensitive documents capable of affecting a person’s career, reputation and prospects and should, therefore, be handled with utmost care.
Evidence before the court showed that OAU later admitted its mistake.
In a letter dated October 14, 2011, the Office of the Vice-Chancellor of the university reportedly wrote to Ecobank, clarifying that Balogun had, in fact, graduated with a Second-Class degree and not a Third-Class degree as previously communicated by a university official in 2005.
Although OAU was initially joined as a defendant in the suit, the university was struck out of the proceedings after the court held that it lacked jurisdiction over the claims against the institution.
In examining the claimant’s case against Ecobank, the court held that the bank failed to comply with the disciplinary procedure contained in its Staff Handbook.
The judge found that the claimant was neither informed of the allegation that his certificate was forged nor allowed to defend himself before the disciplinary action was taken.
The court rejected the bank’s argument that the dismissal was based solely on an alleged excess payment transaction involving N110,000 and not on the discrepancy in the claimant’s academic records.
