Justice Benedict Kanyip, the President of the National Industrial Court in Abuja, has dismissed a lawsuit brought forward by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) against CONUA and NAMDA.
The suit aimed to challenge the Federal Government’s registration of the Congress of University Academics (CONUA) and the Nigeria Association of Medical and Dental Academics (NAMDA) as trade unions.
As reported by Channels News, Justice Kanyip issued his ruling on Tuesday, citing Section 27 of the Trade Union Act, which allows for the existence of more than one trade union within an employment sector.
However, the court clarified that this section does not imply a trading monopoly.
Accordingly, the court upheld the registration of NAMDA and CONUA by the then-Minister of Labour, Chris Ngige, and the Trade Union Registrar, asserting that they had the legal authority to do so while coexisting with ASUU.
Furthermore, the court found that ASUU failed to provide substantial evidence to support its claim.
Meanwhile, It ruled that the evidence presented by ASUU was hearsay since the suit was filed on October 26, 2022, and CONUA and NAMDA had not been officially gazetted in accordance with Section 523 of the Trade Union Act at that time.
Additionally, the court pointed out an error in ASUU’s complaint against NAMDA. The lawsuit incorrectly referred to the organization as the “National Association of Medical and Dental Academics” instead of the correct name, “Nigeria Association of Medical and Dental Academics.”
The court considered this to be a simple typographical mistake, which becomes apparent only when dealing with jurisdictional names or entities in existence.
