National Industrial Court nullifies Jonathan's sacking of NHIS executive secretary

- The National Industrial Court nullifies the sack of Dr. Martins Thomas as the Executive Secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme

- Thomas was sacked in 2015 by former President Goodluck Jonathan in a television broadcast

- Justice Babatunde Adejumo declares Thoma's sacking through a television broadcast as unlawful

The sack of Dr. Martins Thomas as the Executive Secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) has been nullified by the National Industrial Court, The Punch reports.

NAIJ.com gathered that Thomas who was appointed on November 20, 2013 was relieved of his appointment in April 2015 by former President Goodluck Jonathan in a television broadcast by the ex-president’s special adviser on media and publicity, Reuben Abati.

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The court's President, Justice Babatunde Adejumo, in a judgment on Friday declared as unlawful Thomas’ sacking through a broadcast.

The National Industrial Court also agreed with Thomas’ lawyer, Bode Olanipekun, that the television broadcast sacking was invalid because the NHIS boss was not given the benefit of fair hearing before the decision was taken.

Justice Adejumo held that Thomas’ right of fair hearing enshrined in Section 36(1) of the constitution was violated by Jonathan.

The judge further held that the sacking was not compliant with the provisions of Section 8(2)(c) of the NHIS Act, CAP N42 Laws of the Federation 2004, which fixed the NHIS Executive Secretary’s term of employment as five years.

Thomas had prayed the court to declare his sacking as “irregular, unlawful, illegal, unconstitutional, null and void and of no legal effect whatsoever" and to order his immediate reinstatement to office, so that he could complete the remainder of his five-year term.

In the alternative, he prayed the court to compel the Federal Government to compute and pay him what he would have earned as salaries, benefits, emoluments and entitlements for the unused part of his five-year term.

He prayed for exemplary damages in the sum of N5bn.

But Justice Adejumo however declined Thomas’ request for reinstatement and rather ordered the defendants to pay him “all his salaries, benefits, entitlements and emoluments for the unused part of his five years term.” He also refused to grant Thomas’ prayer for N5bn exemplary damages.

In a previous report by NAIJ.com, the investigative panel committee inaugurated to probe the executive secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme have been paid N19 million as sitting allowance, Daily Trust reports.

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Investigation on some official documents shows that 21 members of the probe committee were paid N19,184,000 from NHIS's Treasury Single Account (TSA).

The payment which was made on Thursday, September 14, was described as "honorarium for committee IRO Investigation on NHIS".

Nigerians speak out against N1,500 budget for health per person - on NAIJ.com TV. NAIJ

Source: Naija.ng