The workers who were retrenched by NPA since 1991 were not happy that they have not been paid their entitlements by NPA 31 years after they were retrenched even when the Supreme Court has ruled on the matter.
Armed with placards, laden with messages such as “Should we go to the World Court before NPA will pay us our entitlements since 2005 when the apex court ruled? After 23 years in court, we are still being deceived; NPA give us our pension, gratuity, our redundancy as pronounced by Supreme court, judgment, 2005; National Industrial court help us to enforce Supreme court Judgment now, our case was transferred by Justice Okechukwu Okey of the Federal High Court to National Industry Court for enforcement in March 2013: Give us Supreme Court Judgment, On supreme Court Judgment We stand,” among others.
Lawyer to the retrenched workers, Mr. Chukwuleta Chukwuka explained that the workers are not happy that the lawyer that initially handled the case entered into a Memorandum of Understanding(MoU) with NPA in their behalf and in the process deprived the workers all entitlement as pronounced by the Supreme Court.
He said the aggrieved former workers rejected the MoU hence they have approached the court seeking for a change of legal representation and for the NIC to enforce the judgement of the Supreme Court to enable them obtain all entitlements as pronounced by the apex court.
“So the application that was taken today is for change of counsel so that another lawyer will pursue their case”, Chukwuka told our correspondent adding that the MoU in question was entered in the judgment but that those protesting are against it.
“When this mater came up, these former workers who were not satisfied with the agreement elected to get a counsel of their choice to pursue their claims”, he said.
