Varsity staff dismissed over cult membership, sexual harassment

The National Industrial Court, Abuja on Tuesday affirmed the dismissal of Anthony Corsy as Kwara State University Principal Technologist over gross misconduct of cult membership and sexual harassment.
Justice Oyejoju Oyewumi held that the court adopted two issues in order to determine the matter.
Oyewumi held that the first issue was whether the suit was competent and the second whether the claimant through legal evidence established his case to entitle him to the reliefs sought.
The judge held that the defence argument that the suit was not competent was discountenanced.
She, however, dismissed the suit for lacking merit.
According to her, the failure of the claimant to serve a pre-action notice on the defendant before instituting the suit was detrimental to his case.
A pre-action notice is a letter a prospective claimant is mandated by law to serve a defendant, especially an organisation, of the intention to seek redress concerning a grievance in court.
Oyewumi in addition said the argument of the claimant averred that in his letter of appeal to the defendant, a paragraph stated “I will seek further redress on this” did not suffice as pre-action notice.
She said the sentence was ambiguous and could mean anything as “seeking redress” could be seeking it anywhere.
The judge therefore said the claimant’s case lacked merit, granted none of the reliefs sought and dismissed the suit in entirety.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the claimant had worked as a Principal Technologist at the University until he was served a dismissal letter on January 6, 2018 on allegation of gross misconduct and corrupt practices of his involvement in cult activities and sexual harassment of female students.
From his writ of complaint dated April 13, 2018, he had urged the court to declare that his purported query, suspension and dismissal by the defendant was malicious, unlawful,  null, void and of no effect.
He had equally sought that the court declares that his employment with the defendant still subsisted.
The claimant further sought for an order of the court directing the defendant to reinstate him with all his benefits and privileges as accrued.
In addition, Corsy sought for payment of N10 million as aggravated and exemplary damages.