The National Industrial Court in Abuja has asked the Kogi State Government to pay former deputy governor of the state, Simon Achuba, who was impeached in October 2016, N180m in unpaid security votes for 16 months.
Channels TV reports that he had approached the court seeking for N921,572,758 for security vote, monthly imprest, traveling allowances, outstanding memos and statutory allocations due to his office as then deputy governor.
The judgment, which was read on Wednesday by Justice Oyebiola Oyewunmi, said the sum of N180m will be paid to Achuba as outstanding security votes due to him from April 2018 to August 2019.
The court ordered that if the Yahaya Bello administration does not pay Achuba within the period of 30 days, 30% interest will be paid monthly.
Part of the more than N700m of Achuba’s request, which was turned down by the court, includes the sum of N328m and N32,000, which he asked to be paid as a fraction of his imprest – office running cost when he was in government.
Achuba took the Kogi State Government before the National Industrial Court, praying that the decision of the government to withhold his allowances amounted to unfair labour practice.
His removal preceded the submission of a report of the committee set up by the state Chief Judge, Justice Nasir Ajana, to investigate an allegation of gross misconduct against him.