Court orders reinstatement of downgraded Otuoke University lecturers, awards N20 million damages

The Industrial Court sitting in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, has ordered the reinstatement of four lecturers demoted by the Federal University, Otuoke in Ogbia Local Government Area of the state.

The institution, in 2018, downgraded Prof. Steve Nwabuzor from the rank of professor to Lecturer I and Dr. Felina Nwadike, an Associate Professor to Senior Lecturer.

Others were Dr. Sepribo Lawson-Jack, an Associate Professor, to Lecturer I and Dr. Evans Eze from Associate Professor to Lecturer II.

The Presiding Judge, Justice Bashiru Alkali, who ruled that the claimants be reinstated to their full status, privileges and entitlements by the institution, ordered that the university should pay each claimant N5 million for defamation and N200,000 each for cost of litigation.