BETWEEN
SEA TRUCKS NIGERIA LIMITED ……………………………… APPELLANT
AND
ANIGBORO ……………………………………… RESPONDENT
Before Their Lordships
Adolphus Godwin Karibi-Whyte- Justice of The Supreme Court of Nigeria
Michael Ekundayo Ogundare Justice of The Supreme Court of Nigeria
Sylvester Umaru Onu;Justice of The Supreme Court of Nigeria
Okechukwu Godfrey Achike Justice of The Supreme Court of Nigeria
Samson Odemwingie Uwaifo Justice of The Supreme Court of Nigeria
……………………………A……………………………
Ogundare, JSC (Delivered The Leading Judgment):– This is an appeal against the judgment of the Court of Appeal (Benin Division) wherein the appeal of the applicant (now respondent before us) was allowed and judgment was entered in his favour in terms of his prayers before the trial High Court which had earlier refused those prayers.
The respondent, as applicant, had in a motion filed on 26 February 1987 in the High Court of the now defunct Bendel State, in the Warri Judicial Division prayed the court pursuant to Section 42(1) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1979 and Order 1 rule 2 of Fundamental Rights (Enforcement Procedure) Rules 1979, for leave to bring an application:-
“for redress of the breach of the rights of Assembly and Association of the plaintiff/applicant when he was unlawfully and summarily dismissed from work by the defendants on 28 February, 1986 by locking him out and by notice at the gate of the defendants’ premises at Enerhen . . . for his declaring to belong to a particular trade union NUPENG . . .” (My emphasis.)
In the statement in support of the application the respondent sought the following reliefs from the court, to wit:-“2. Relief sought
The plaintiff claims (a) that his purported summary dismissal from the said employment of Sea Truck Nigeria Limited (the defendant) on 28 February 1986 is a breach of his fundamental rights under the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1979 when the defendant locked the plaintiff out of the premises of the defendant and thereby preventing the plaintiff from entering the premises and carrying out the duties of his employment for the defendant and when the defendant pasted the Notice of the Summary Dismissal of the plaintiff written on the notice board at the gate of the premises of the defendant at Enerhen within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court on the ground that the plaintiff declared along with the other workers of the defendant for NUPENG (b) order of this Honourable Court to reinstate the plaintiff to his said employment and benefits and entitlements as from 28 February 1986 and/or in the alternative N20,000 compensation for the said breach of the fundamental rights of the plaintiff under the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1979.”
