Court Rejects Murhi Intl. Ltd’s Claim That Employee Payments Were “Gifts,” Orders Full Compensation

The Court also ordered Murhi Intl. Ltd to pay Mr Adebakin’s unremitted pension from January to December 2007; February, March, and April 2010 and May 2011 to October 2022 when Mr Adebakin resigned from his employment to AIICO pension.

Justice Yelwa further ordered Murhi Intl. Ltd to pay Mr Adebakin the sum of N235,600 (Two Hundred and Thirty-Five Thousand, Six Hundred Naira), being the total amount of the leave allowance from 1998 to 2022, and the sum of N23,780 as Medical bill, the sum of N500,000 (Five Hundred Thousand Naira) as damages, and the sum of N200,000.00 cost of action.

From facts, the claimant- Mr. Adebakin had submitted that he commenced work with Murhi Intl. Ltd on 1st April 1988, and he resigned on 24th October 2022. However, the company did not pay him leave allowance, unpaid salaries from January 2016 to November 2022, and unremitted pension, among others and all efforts to get his entitlements were to no avail.

In defence, the defendant- Murhi Intl. Ltd maintained that the payment of Mr Adebakin’s salary ended in 2018, and that any amount due to Mr Adebakin by the company was not salary but a gift ex gratia by the discretion of the chairman of the firm whenever Mr Adebakin approached him for financial assistance.

The firm averred that they only owed salary which in total amounts to the sum of N894,024.00, and contended that it has remitted Adebakin’s pension to the pension administrator that Mr. Adebakin refused to follow the procedure to instruct the new pension administrator which would in turn direct NSITF to transfer the pension contributions of Mr. Adebakin to AIICO Pension.

In opposition, the learned counsel to Mr Adebakin contended that the pension deductions by the firm between 1998 and 2007 under the NSITF have not been remitted to his pension account till date, while the computation of Murhi Intl. Ltd as captured between 2005 to 2018 is erroneous from the actual amount due to his client, and urged the Court to grant the reliefs sought.

In a well-considered Judgment, the presiding Judge, Justice Sanda Yelwa stated that the subject head of the issued memo and to whom the memo was referred are All Freelance OR Ad-hoc Staff on freelance activities, that Mr Adebakin was duly employed by a letter of appointment dated 1st April, 1998.

The Court reiterated that the duty of an employee is to show that he is an employee of the employer from whom the claim for salary and other entitlement are made and also to prove his entitlement to the claim, and the employer has the burden of showing or establishing that he had paid the Claimant and the amount paid as salary.

Based on the evidence before the Court, Justice Yelwa held that Mr. Adebakin is entitled to the total sum of N2,619,000 from Murhi Intl. Ltd as unpaid salary owed.