Charles Taylor: Ex-customs officer challenges dismissal

 

A former Nigeria Custom Service officer, Sunday Umoh, who was said to have prevented former Liberian president, Charles Taylor, from escaping from Nigeria into Cameroun in 2006, has instituted a suit to challenge his dismissal from service.

 Umoh, in the suit filed before the National Industrial Court, Lagos, stated that he refused to accept $460,000 bribe from Taylor when he was trying to escape through the Gamboru Ngala border into Cameroun.

He also said an honour for his “patriotic action” scheduled to be conferred on him during the Comptroller General Conference in November 2006 was suddenly cancelled.

Umoh said he was denied access to work after the honour was cancelled until he was later dismissed by the NCS in 2010 through a letter dated September 2, 2010.

 He filed the suit against the NCS on December 21, 2012.

He had put almost 23 years into service when he was dismissed.

 Taylor was arrested by Umoh and other border guards at the Gamboru Ngala border in Borno State on March 29, 2006.

This came some days after the Nigerian government indicated its intention to hand over Taylor, who was then on exile in Nigeria, to the Liberian government to face trial for war crimes.

Through the suit filed on his behalf by Mr. Adedotun Isola-Osobu of Falana & Falana Chamber, Umoh is seeking an order “reinstating him to his duty post” and for the payment of his “arrears till judgment is delivered”.

Meanwhile, the NCS had through its counsel, Lawunmi Halilu, has filed a preliminary objection to the suit, claiming that what led to Umoh’s dismissal arose from an undisclosed issue of August 4, 2005.

It stated that the suit was “statute-barred” since the claimant failed to file it within three months after the cause of action which led to the suit” was re-affirmed in September 2010”.

It urged the court to dismiss the suit because it was “statute-barred by virtue of the provisions of section 2(a) of the Public Officers Protection Act LFN Cap 379 of 2004”.

Justice Terseer Agbadu-Fishim has January 15, 2014 for hearing.