Court dismisses Elected Officers Pension Claims against Imo State
The Court dismissed pension and allowance claims against Imo State Government by past speakers and deputy speakers of the Imo State House of Assembly for lacking merit.
The Presiding Judge, Owerri Judicial Division of the National Industrial Court, Hon. Justice Ibrahim Galadima has dismissed Rt. Hon. Maxwell Duru and 7 others’ pension and allowance claims against Imo State Government and 3 others for lacking merit.
Justice Galadima held that Rt. Hon. Maxwell Duru and 7 others have not adduced any scintilla of evidence that proves their respective positions as speakers and deputy speakers of the Imo State House of Assembly and could not even establish that they were all former members of the House let alone principal officers of the Imo State Legislature.
From facts, the claimants – Rt. Hon. Maxwell Duru and 7 others had submitted that they were elected members of the Imo State House of Assembly who respectively served as speakers while others served as deputy speakers of the House in the year 1979, 1991, 1993, 1999, 2003, and 2007.
They contended that Imo State Governors’ and Speakers’ Pensions and Privileges Law 2011, provided for pensions and other benefits payable to former governors and erstwhile speakers and deputy speakers of Imo state, and the respondents failed or neglected to pay them all their entitlements, urged the court to grant the reliefs sought.
In defense, the respondents- Imo State Government and Its Attorney General maintained that the applicants are not entitled to any pension benefits as alleged, and submitted that the said Law of 2020 has no retroactive application and does not invalidate the previous operations of the laws repealed therein.
Learned counsel submitted that the court lacks the requisite jurisdiction to hear and determine the matter on the basis that a proper and necessary party is not before the court and the issues cannot be fully determined without joining the Imo State House of Assembly to the suit, urged the court to dismiss the case.
Delivering the judgment, the presiding Judge, Justice Ibrahim Galadima dismissed Rt. Hon. Maxwell Duru and 7 others objection for lacking merit and held that the questions for determination can be well resolved without the Imo State House of Assembly taking part as a party to the suit.
The Court held that the Rt. Hon. Maxwell Duru and 7 others have the onus of proving that they were respectively former speakers and deputy speakers of the Imo State House of Assembly as at the time the laws they seek to interpret and apply were operational.
“What the applicants must acknowledge is that this court is a court of law, facts and evidence and not one of speculation, as it has been held in plethora of case laws that speculation is not one of the businesses of a court of law” Justice Galadima ruled.
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