The industrial Court sitting in Bayelsa has ordered the Bayelsa State Government, Bayelsa State College of Technology and its Provost to pay Mr. Kieriseiye Erefagha the sum of N1, 673,418.15K (One Million, Six Hundred and Seventy-Three Thousand, Four Hundred and Eighteen Naira, Fifteen Kobo) being his cumulative net salaries from May 2018 to July 2019, and N1m as general damages for the hardship and inconveniences suffered following the unlawful withholding of his salaries, with N500k cost of action within 30 days.
The Presiding Judge, Yenagoa Judicial Division of the National Industrial Court, Hon. Justice Bashar Alkali has declared that Mr. Kieriseiye Erefagha is still a staff of the Bayelsa State College of Technology having not been retired, dismissed, and/or redeployed to any Department or Agency of the Bayelsa State Government.
Also, Justice Alkali granted an order of perpetual injunction restraining the Bayelsa State Government, Bayelsa State College of Technology and its Provost, their servants, privities, and other persons claiming through or under the Defendants from unlawfully and unconstitutionally withholding the salaries and entitlements of Mr. Erefagha except under the due process of the law.
It was gathered that the claimant- Mr. Kieriseiye Erefagha had submitted that he had been a dedicated staff of the Bayelsa State College of Technology from the date of his appointment until 14th May 2018 when the College, without any cogent reason, put up an internal memorandum notifying him and other staff that their names had been forwarded to the State Government for redeployment without stating the particular Department or Agency of the State Government to which they had been redeployed.
