Human rights lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana, SAN, has urged Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, to get Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited to obey the Supreme Court judgement and reinstate 860 security staff it sacked for resisting its anti-labour policy of converting them into spy police personnel.
In a letter to the minister, as counsel of the 860 security staff, Falana regretted that since April 20, 2018, when the Supreme Court ordered their reinstatement, the oil comapny has refused to obey the order.
According to the letter, in 1986, Exxon Mobil recruited some Nigerian employees as security personnel. Later, it tried converting them into spy police personnel in connivance with the police authorities.
Security personnel who rejected their illegal posting by the police, were dismissed while those who remained in the service of the company were kitted as spy police personnel with meagre salaries.
In 2005, the aggrieved security staff sued the company at the Federal High Court, Uyo and won. The matter went to the Court of Appeal, which on May 21, 2009 ruled that the security personnel were not spy police but employees of the oil company, a verdict the Supreme Court also upheld and ordered their reinstatement.
‘’Since the oil company cannot disobey the judgement of the Supreme Court of the United States of America, it should not be allowed to treat the Supreme Court of Nigeria with disdain. Having regards to the facts and circumstances of this case, we are compelled to urge you to use your good offices to ensure that the valid and subsisting judgements of the Supreme Court are fully complied with not later than September 24, 2018,” Falana urged Ngige.
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