Court Stops El-Rufai From Sacking 20,000 Teachers In Kaduna

-Court orders El-Rufai to stay action on planned sack of some primary school teachers in Kaduna.

-The order was handed down by Justice Lawal Mani of the National Industrial Court.

Industrial court restricts El-Rufai from sacking teachers.

The Kaduna division of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria on Thursday, put on hold the plan by the Nasir El-Rufai led Kaduna state government to sack 21,780 primary school teachers who failed a competency test organised by the state government.

The affected teachers had on October 30, through their lawyer, Samuel Atum, filed a motion of “interlocutory injunction”, asking the court to stop the government from dismissing or disengaging any teacher on the basis of the test conducted in June 2017.

The application has now been granted on Thursday by Justice Lawal Mani pending the determination of the substantive suit.

The case was also adjourned to February 6th, 2018.

The hearing on Thursday was attended by hundreds of teachers and labour leaders.

Counsel to the teachers, Atum, described the court judgement as victory for the masses.

“This is democracy and the premise of democracy is the rule of law, so we expect nothing more than absolute submission by the state government to comply with the order of the court,” he told journalists. “I have confidence that the government will comply or obey this order.”

Lawyers representing the State Attorney General,the State Government, as well as Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria, TRCN, according to Premium Times declined comments on the case.

“It has given us hope. We hope too that the governor will obey the court order,” Zainab Sanusi, a teacher, said.

Recall the move by the Kaduna state government to sack workers that scored below 75 percent in a competency test it organized has been generating several controversies and reactions.