The case of Alele-Williams and Prof. Itse Sagay is perhaps one of those moments when a Professor of Law was indeed humiliated in a Nigerian university, only for the humiliation to later turn into a landmark decision of the Court of Appeal.
Let me tell you the interesting story.
In 1985, Prof. Grace Alele-Williams was appointed the first female Vice-Chancellor of the University of Benin and Nigeria by extension.
Her appointment coincided with a period when the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) was intermittently clashing with the Military Government of Ibrahim Babangida.
Prof. Itse Sagay was the Dean of the Faculty of Law and a front burner of the advocacy for better academic treatment by the Federal Government.
Prof. Alele-Williams, who felt that the activities of people like Itse Sagay were giving her administration a bad name before the military government, looked for the easiest possible way to get rid of Itse Sagay and his likes.
So, she did something interesting.
Ordinarily, under the University of Benin Act, a professor cannot be disciplined or have his appointment terminated without a formal investigation by a Senate-Council Joint Committee, which includes a mandatory fair hearing.
But Prof. Alele-Williams deliberately bypassed the Senate and Governing Council and recommended that the appointments of Prof. Festus Iyayi and Prof. Sagay be terminated by the military government of Babangida under the draconian Public Officers (Special Provisions) Decree No. 17 of 1984.
It didn’t stop there.
Prof. Alele-Williams ordered the stoppage of Prof. Itse Sagay’s salary and his immediate, aggressive eviction, together with his family, from his official university quarters.
All these measures were carried out to the letter.
Prof. Sagay saw it as an act of oppression and a threat to academic autonomy, so he challenged it before Hon. Justice J.O. Akhigbe of the Bendel State High Court.
Prof. Itse argued that the termination of his appointment with the University of Benin was unlawful.
Why?
Because according to him, as a professor, his employment possessed a statutory flavour, meaning he could not be removed without strict adherence to the fair hearing provisions in the University of Benin Act.
He also convinced the court that despite the sudden, state-backed military decree terminating his academic appointment, his status as an occupant of the university quarters could not be instantly dissolved.
He contended that he was a lawful resident entitled to the statutory protections of local landlord-and-tenant laws under the Recovery of Residential Premises Law, meaning the university had a strict legal obligation to serve him proper statutory notices before seeking possession.
He concluded by saying that the Vice-Chancellor’s decision to deploy internal campus security guards to physically throw out his family, seize his property and bar his entry was an illegal resort to executive self-help.
On the other hand, the administration of Alele-Williams argued that the act was executed under a military decree, Decree No. 17 of 1984, which ousted the court’s jurisdiction, and that the university officials were merely executing state directives.
Justice J.O. Akhigbe listened to the arguments and accepted the position of Prof. Itse Sagay.
He described the actions of the VC as highly oppressive. Hence, he ordered the payment of exemplary damages, including the salaries that were withheld.
But the matter did not end there.
The case later went to the Court of Appeal, where Justice Roseline Ajoke Ige, who read the lead judgment, even melted a greater blow on the administration of Alele-Williams for such malicious treatment.
According to the court, Prof. Alele-Williams was personally liable because even if an employee’s appointment is targeted for termination by a state directive, a Vice-Chancellor cannot use that directive as a licence to act with personal vindictiveness by freezing earned emoluments or deploying campus guards to forcefully evict the individual.
The court held that the administration used the termination as a tool to oppress and publicly humiliate a senior academic staff and thus, the Vice-Chancellor was personally liable to pay exemplary damages.
The court concluded by saying that even where an employer-employee relationship breaks down, an institution cannot summarily throw a former employee out onto the streets like a common trespasser without providing reasonable transition time and adhering to legal procedures.
In the end, the court awarded punitive exemplary damages against Alele-Williams and the University of Benin.
The issue of reinstatement was left aside because, in a separate suit that went to the Supreme Court, both Prof. Festus Iyayi and Prof. Itse Sagay fought that suit up to the Supreme Court.
The case of Alele-Williams v. Itse Sagay later became a precedent to the effect that even where an employer-employee relationship breaks down, an employer is still duty-bound to give reasonable notice before eviction from an official residence.
Again, where an administrative body acts maliciously, exemplary damages can be granted as punitive measures against such reckless acts.
It is cited today as Professor Grace Alele-Williams v. Professor Itse Sagay (1995) 5 NWLR (Pt. 396) 441.
I am Ekene Aninze, Esq.
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