Court strikes out NUT’s suit against Kaduna over teachers’ sack

The national industrial court sitting in Kaduna has struck out a suit against the state government, filed by the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT).

The Kaduna government had sacked 21,780 teachers in the state after they failed a competency test in 2017.

The teachers’ union went on strike, and later filed a case in court challenging the action, but Nasir el-Rufai, Kaduna governor, said there was no going back on the action.

“We have already taken second, third and fourth looks at this situation. We have studied what previous governments have tried to do and there is no going back,” he said in 2018.

In a statement on Saturday, Aisha Dikko, Kaduna commissioner of justice, said S.O. Adeniyi, the judge, gave a ruling on the matter in the state’s favour on February 2.

“In the bid to restore the competency of the teaching profession and improve the standard of education in schools across the state, a competency test was conducted for public primary school teachers in the state, on 3rd June, 2017,” Dikko said.

“The claimants, however, challenged the powers of the defendants to terminate and or dismiss from service, any teacher in the public primary school of Kaduna state, without the support of the simple majority of the Kaduna state house of assembly.

“The claimants also stated that prior to the conduct of the competency test, the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN) had written a letter to the defendants to state its exclusive role as the regulating agency of the teaching profession in Nigeria, and despite the letter, the defendant still conducted the competency test and set the pass mark at 75 percent, contrary to the agreement that the pass mark for the competency test should be 60 percent.

“Justice Adeniyi ruled that the claimants’ claims are unsupported by evidence and, as a result, lacked merit.

“The case was accordingly dismissed and no award as to cost was made.”