The National Industrial Court of Nigeria sitting in Makurdi, the Benue State capital, has granted the motion brought by erstwhile aides of former Governor Gabriel Suswam to amend their statement of claim.
The presiding Judge, Justice S. H. Danjidda, granted the application when same was moved by counsel to the claimants, Ocha Ulegede.
Counsel to the defendants, N. L. Ikyaagba (Mrs.) did not oppose the application.
Simon Tarhemba Ajoh for himself and 155 former aides had dragged the Benue State Government (BNSG), Gov. Samuel Ortom and the Attorney General of the State before the court, for failure to pay their entitlements after successfully working for the Benue State Government.
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The matter was withdrawn for out of court settlement, upon request by the Attorney General of the State. However, Ajoh and the 155 others said government was not sincere in seeing to the out of court settlement and consequently applied for the matter to be re-listed.
Ulegede told reporters after sitting, that his clients had indicated that they will be back to court if the matter was not resolved out of court.
He explained that they were back to court because rather than pay the affected aides, government embarked on “selective payment” to friends of the Governor.
And so, “we are back to court and have gotten the motion to amend our claim to reflect the upstanding amount to this date. We have removed the names of the Attorney General and others from the claimants list,” Ulegede said.
The matter has been adjourned to March 30, 2020, for further mention.