Industrial Court Dismisses Ex-Councillor’s ₦1.5m Allowance Claim Against Sagbama LGC
The Presiding Judge of the Yenagoa Judicial Division of the National Industrial Court, Hon. Justice Polycarp Hamman, has dismissed the suit filed by Barr. Peremobowei against Sagbama Local Government Council and the Ministry of Local Government Administration for want of proof.
The Court held that Barr. Peremobowei failed to establish his entitlement to the sum claimed as outstanding allowances predicated on a Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission Circular could not validly apply to Local Government Councillors.
Justice Polycarp reiterated that a claim by a Local Government Councillor that is principally hinged on the Circular on Explanatory Notes on Councillors’ Remuneration Package dated 7th November, 2001 issued by the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission alone, without supporting same with any other Law, Circular or Regulation of the Bayelsa State Government, cannot be competent in the circumstances.
From facts, the claimant, Barr. Peremobowei had submitted that he was elected and served as Councillor from 2004 to 2007 and was not paid certain statutory allowances due to him during his tenure.
Barr. Peremobowei stated that following efforts by former councillors in Bayelsa State to recover their outstanding entitlements, a committee set up by the Ministry of Local Government Administration assessed the sums owed and recommended payment to the affected councillors, following which part payment was made to him.
He maintained that out of the sum assessed as payable, he received only N280k through instalment payments before the payment process was discontinued, leaving an outstanding balance of N1.5m which remained unpaid despite repeated demands.
Therefore, he sought the sum of N1.5m as outstanding allowances, N600k as cost of litigation and N1m as general damages for the inconveniences suffered as a result of the non-payment.
In defence, Sagbama Local Government Council maintained that Barr. Peremobowei and other councillors who served between 2004 and 2007 had received all lawful entitlements due to them and denied owing any outstanding allowances.
Counsel to Sagbama Local Government Council, Henry Nnamuka Esq argued that the suit was statute-barred under the Limitation Law of Bayelsa State, having been instituted more than five years after Barr. Peremobowei’s cause of action accrued, and urged the Court to decline jurisdiction and dismiss the suit.
In opposition, Counsel to Barr. Peremobowei argued that the action was founded on the recommendations and resolutions contained in the report prepared by the committee set up to investigate the outstanding entitlements of former councillors and not on the original claim arising from his tenure in office.
Learned Counsel held that where a claim is not denied, it is deemed to have been admitted, and what is admitted needs no further proof, and that the committee report constituted a fresh basis for his client’s claim and that the suit was commenced within five years of the report, thereby taking the action outside the scope of the limitation defence raised by the Local Government.
In a well-considered Judgment, Justice Polycarp Hamman held that Barr. Peremobowei’s suit was not statute-barred because the action sought to enforce the resolutions contained in the committee report produced in 2015 and the suit was commenced in 2017, well within the limitation period prescribed by the Limitation Law of Bayelsa State.
The Court held that while Barr. Peremobowei successfully established that he served as a councillor and that the committee report recognised certain outstanding claims by former councillors; the principal relief sought was fundamentally anchored on a Circular issued by the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission.
The Court held that Local Government Councillors are not legislators within the contemplation of the Constitution and consequently do not fall within the category of office holders whose remuneration can be fixed by the Revenue.
Justice Hamman ruled that since Barr. Peremobowei’s claim was principally predicated on the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission Circular without any supporting law, regulation or circular issued by the Bayelsa State Government; the claim could not succeed in law.
