Eighteen months after he was suspended by the then Finance Minister on November 29, 2017, National Industrial Court, Abuja, on Thursday ordered the immediate reinstatement of Mounir Gwarzo, the suspended Director-General of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to complete his five-year tenure.
The order is despite a five-count charge of alleged misappropriation levied against Gwarzo, among others, to the tune of about N115m and conferment of corrupt advantage on a public officer. He was accused of collecting severance package worth N104.85m, while still in service, thereby violating civil service rules.
In his ruling, Justice Sanusi Kado held that the minister of finance, who is the second defendant in the suit, lacked the power to suspend the claimant.
Kado, who dismissed three issues raised by defence counsel through their preliminary objection, ruled that the suit was not status barred.
He held that since there was a cause of action in the claimant’s suit, he (the claimant) had the right to commence the suit by way of originating summon.
Kado further held that the issue in dispute was not about the position of the claimant as the DG of the commission, but who had the power to suspend him.
The judge held that the second defendant (Minister of Finance) did not have the power to suspend the claimant since he was not an employee of the commission, noting that only the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, on the directive of the president had the power of suspension.
The Minister, in the absence of the board, he added, only had supervisory power, which does not include disciplinary power to suspend the DG, stressing that “the minister’s role was that of recommendation.”
In addition, the judge ruled that the Administrative Panel of Inquiry that indicted the claimant was not a court of law; neither was it a quasi-judicial body, but just a body set up for a fact-finding duty.
He, therefore, declared that the suspension of the claimant was null, void and of no effect, while also declaring that the panel’s recommendation set up by the second defendant, be set aside.
He further ordered that the claimant’s salaries, allowances, and entitlements accrued should be paid to him in full.