The Presiding Judge of the National Industrial Court, Calabar Division, Justice Sanusi Kado, has ruled that the refusal of the Nigeria Customs Service Board and the Nigeria Customs Service to pay Chief Celestine his accrued pension after 27 years of service was wrongful and unconstitutional.
Delivering judgment, Justice Kado held that Celestine’s pension rights were protected under the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1979, which was in force when his appointment was terminated in 1996. The court found that the applicable law governing his entitlement was the old pension regime under the Pension Act, not the contributory scheme introduced by the Pension Reform Act 2014.
Celestine had reportedly joined the Nigeria Customs Service in 1969 and served for 27 years before his employment was terminated following disciplinary proceedings over alleged misconduct. He argued that although he had been suspended and demoted, the subsequent termination of his appointment should not deprive him of his earned pension and gratuity, having satisfied the statutory requirement for pensionable service. He further claimed breaches of his right to fair hearing and protection from discrimination.
In response, the defendants contended that his dismissal for misconduct disentitled him from receiving pension benefits and maintained that most of his claims were statute-barred.
Counsel for the plaintiff argued that pension is a vested right which accrues once statutory conditions are met and cannot be extinguished without clear legal authority, adding that he could not be subjected to double punishment through forfeiture of pension.
Justice Kado held that under the applicable law, any officer who has served not less than 15 years is entitled to a pension, and that Chief Celestine, having served 27 years, clearly met the threshold. The court found no statutory provision expressly extinguishing his accrued pension rights by reason of his termination and ruled that the disciplinary measures already imposed could not lawfully deprive him of benefits earned over nearly three decades.
The court consequently ordered the Nigeria Customs Service Board and the Nigeria Customs Service to compute and pay Chief Celestine’s pension from 20 June 1996 to July 2014, calculated on his last salary before termination.
It held that pension liabilities from July 2014 fall under the responsibility of the Pension Transitional Directorate, which was not a party to the suit, but that the defendants remain liable for the period prior to that transition.