NIC judgement: ASCSN assures members of Justice

By Bimbola Oyesola

Against the backdrop of recent development in the legal battle confronting the union, the national leadership of the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN) has called on its members to remain calm, resolute, steadfast and law-abiding.

The union said arrangement has been concluded to appeal the judgment of the National Industrial Court (NIC) in respect of the leadership of the union.

The ASCSN Secretary-General, Joshua Apebo, stated that the union would ensure that justice was done on the matter.

The union recalled that on Monday, February 22, 2021, the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) arrested and detained Bola-Audu Innocent, (former president of the union who took the union to court) for alleged case of human trafficking and exploitation of vulnerable persons.

“The Union, thereafter, resolved that given the enormity of the case and to save the image of the Association and protect his job that Bola-Audu should step aside so that informal channels could be explored by the National Leadership of the Association with the authorities to give him soft landing.”

He noted that instead of abiding by this wise counsel, “Bola-Audu elected to recruit thugs to be invading the headquarters of the Association in Lagos and the Annex office in Abuja and also dragged the Union to Court in violation of the Constitution of the Association.”

He added that the former president also wrote letters to the banks of the union to put a lien on the bank accounts of the Association to cripple its activities.

“Against the background of these anti-union activities, the Association expelled Bola-Audu from the body in line with the Union’s Constitution,” he stated.

“It is also necessary to state that the office of the Accountant-General of the Federation also barred him from entering the Treasury House, Abuja while the Federal Civil Service Commission equally suspended him from service but he later smuggled himself back to the Civil Service,” he added.