FREEDOM AMBASSADORS ORGANIZATION COMMENDS INDUSTRIAL COURT JUDGEMENT FOR ABANDONED WORKER

The Freedom Ambassadors Organization (FAO), a non-governmental human rights group, has described Monday’s judgement delivered by the National Industrial Court, Benin City, as an overwhelming victory for the oppressed.

A statement issued by its Coordinator General, Comrade Curtis Ogbebor, said the judgment will help put in check, some of the abnormalities perpetuated by expatriates who run companies in Nigeria, without ensuring employees welfare and safety.

Comrade Ogbebor stated that a Benin based Chinese Tiles Company, Times Ceramics Limited, abandoned a young lady who was a cook to the company after she sustained a 25 degree burns from a hot pot of soup which poured on her while she was performing her duties for the company.

The Coordinator General of FAO, also stated, that though the company initially took the girl to The University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH), they hurriedly asked for her discharge from the hospital, took her to their clinic where they gave her insufficient treatment, only to later abandon her to suffer severe pains.

According to Comrade Ogbebor, who is also the interim Coordinator, Edo Civil Society Organizations (EDOSCO), “those foreigners who feels they can subject Nigerians to slavery in their own land will begin to have a rethink from this day onward.“

Comrade Ogbebor added that a Medical Expert in UBTH, recommended plastic surgery which would cost the sum of two hundred and fifty thousand naira, but the company refused to pay the money and opted to discharge her from the hospital, emphasizing that the FAO through their Legal representative, Timothy Obasuyi, wrote to the company, in respect of the matter, but to no avail, hence the Court action.

Delivering judgement in the suit No NICN/BEN/04/2019 Between Bukola Seidic and Times Ceramics Limited, Presiding Judge, Hon. Justice Abiola Adewemimo, held that the victim, Bukola Seidic, who was 25 years old as at the time, was abandoned by the company, having slipped in the kitchen, while the soup she was carrying poured on her and she sustained life-threatening injuries as a result of the slippery tiles fixed in the kitchen

The court observed that though the company took her to the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH), the insisted that the victim be discharged few days later when the hospital requested for the sum of two hundred and fifty thousand naira for surgery.

Hon. Justice Adewemimo agreed with the victim’s evidence and her Counsel’s submission that the company took her to their clinic where she was poorly treated only to later abandon her, which amounts to negligence of duty of care.

The court believed the victim’s testimony that there was no safety wares and rejected evidence of the company’s health Officer who testified that the victim did not wear safety boot and gloves while on duty hence, she sustained injuries, even as Justice Adewemimo noted that the health Officer refused to call the workers who told him that she was not wearing safety wares to give evidence.

The Court, consequently, awarded the sum of five million naira as compensation and another sum of five million naira as damages for the victim’s destabilization, shock, disfigurement, frustration and pains suffered by the victim.

The Court also awarded the sum of two hundred and fifty thousand naira against the company, adding that the monies must be paid within thirty days of the judgement and that the the sum will attract interest rates upon failure to do so before the thirty days.