Dismissal: Appeal Court Reserves Judgment In NIA’s Ex-Director’s Suit

The Court of Appeal Abuja division has reserved judgment in an appeal involving the former acting director, National Intelligence Agency (NIA), ambassador Mohammed Dauda and NIA.

In the suit marked: CA/A/1037/2018, NIA is the appellant, while ambassador Mohammed Dauda is the respondent.

The National Industrial Court had earlier ordered the immediate reinstatement of the dismissed former acting director of the agency into the service as substantive director.

In the suit, marked NICN/ABJ/136/2018, Dauda joined the director-general and NIA as first and second defendants respectively.

The Abuja division of the court in its judgment by Justice Olufunke Anuwe also awarded a cost of N1 million in favour of Dauda as damages.

Not satisfied with the verdicts, the federal government had in 2020 appealed the reinstatement of the embattled former acting NIA DG.

Subsequently, a three-man panel of Justices of the Court of Appeal, Abuja division headed by Justice Muktar Husseini okayed the application of the NIA to appeal the judgment.

But at the resume hearing recently, NIA through its lawyer,  Adewale Adesokan (SAN), asked the appellate court to allow the appeal because the appellant did not explore the internal mechanism to resolve the dispute before he proceeded to the National Industrial Court.

The NIA lawyer asked the court to dismiss the appeal, saying that it was an abuse of the court process.

But Dauda’s counsel, Uchenna Njoku, who had earlier raised a preliminary objection, also prayed the appellate court to allow the appeal, arguing that his client did not abuse the court process.

He told the court that five years down the line, the appeal committee set up by the appellant (NIA) had not done anything on the matter.

Leading a three-man panel of Judges, Justice Justice P. O. Ige, reserved judgment in the matter. Other justices are; Justice O. E. Williams-Dawodu, and Justice D. Z. Senchi.