A lecturer, Inih Ebong, unjustly sacked by the University of Uyo (Uniuyo) over 22 years ago, has won a final victory against the university at the Court of Appeal, Calabar, Cross River State.
The appellate court, on Tuesday, dismissed an appeal filed by the University of Uyo for a stay of the execution of a 2020 judgement of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria, which ordered the university to reinstate Mr Ebong and pay him all his entitlements and damages.
“It’s all over. It’s all over. Everything is over,” said Mr Ebong’s lawyer, Nse William, who confirmed the development to PREMIUM TIMES Tuesday afternoon.
“We give glory to God,” he added.
“You know, wherever there’s a wrong, there’s always a remedy,” Mr William said, adding that he was happy that the lecturer was alive to witness the victory.
‘It has been so long’
An elated Mr Ebong spoke with our reporter on Tuesday about his legal victory.
“I feel very happy,” he said.
“The road is now as clear as the apian way for me to enforce that judgment (of the industrial court). Whether the vice-chancellor likes it or not, he must pay that money. It is his karma.”
The lecturer thanked Nigerians who stood by him throughout his travail.
He thanked the Nigerian billionaire Femi Otedola, who sponsored his medical treatment, and a human rights lawyer, Inibehe Effiong, for travelling from Lagos to Uyo to visit him and for speaking out against the injustice meted out to him.
Mr Ebong’s wife, Uduak, expressed her happiness about the court victory.
“It has been so long,” she said.
“The whole thing started when I gave birth to my first daughter. All my three children were born into the struggle. Today, my first daughter is 21 years old and is in the university.
“Our kids have been our great supporters.”
Uduak narrated how, on Sunday, they were thinking about where to get money for the lawyer’s transport fare to Calabar for the Appeal Court judgment. Then, out of the blue, Mr Ebong’s former schoolmate at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, credited her husband’s account with N20,000.
“We have been so blessed to receive support from kind Nigerians,” she said.
Mr Ebong was an associate professor at the theatre arts department when Uniuyo unjustly sacked him in 2002 over a false accusation that he abandoned his duty.
The lecturer was reputed for his resistance to and criticism of maladministration, mismanagement and corruption in the university.
Akpan Ekpo, a recently retired professor of economics, was the vice-chancellor of the university when authorities moved unjustly against the lecturer. A certain Peter Effiong was the registrar during the period.
