By Abdulwahab Abdulah

A Lagos High Court has nullified First Bank of Nigeria’s ,FBN termination of the appointment of one of its former Assistant General Manager, Mrs.Funmi Oyetunji nine years after the bank rejected her resignation from her post. Instead, the court ordered the bank to convert Oyetunji’s exit to resignation.

In a well consider judgment delivered by Justice Afeez Dabiri, the court held that the decision of the bank to sack Mrs. Oyetunji some days after she tendered her resignation was abnormal, stating that her resignation was in order according to the law.

Oyetunji who was, until June 14, 2002, an Assistant General Manager, Treasury and Funds Management. The suit specifically, challenged the bank’s powers to terminate the appointment of an employee who had voluntarily resigned.

The plaintiff had, while on suspension over her alleged complicity in the bank’s botched attempt to acquire NITEL and in which it lost about $131.7 million, resigned her appointment via a letter dated June 14, 2002, served on her employer same day.

At trial, the bank acknowledged the receipt of Oyetunji’s letter, but said it rejected it but issued her a termination letter on the grounds that, not only was she on suspension, her resignation was intended to preempt the outcome of the investigation of her role in the failed NITEL deal.

Justice Dabiri, in nullifying the bank’s termination letter dated June 14, 2002, delivered to Oyetunji on June 19, held that since the plaintiff’s resignation letter came first in time, it takes precedence over her employer’s letter of termination.

The court faulted the bank’s contention that Oyetunji could not resign while on suspension, noting that the employment agreement dated December13, 1999 and the Disciplinary Procedure Section of the bank’s Employee Code of Conduct and Ethical Standard Guidelines do not contain such provisions, which could make the bank carry out such disciplinary action against her.

The court held that where there is no statutory provision or the term as contained in the agreement of parties, the common law principle, which provides that every employee has the right to resign his appointment whenever he so desires, prevails.“I hold that the suspension did not extinguish the claimant’s (plaintiff’s) right to resign her appointment since there is no break in the continuity of the claimant’s employment in this circumstance.

The resignation is effective in law even when the employer does not expressly accept it as was contended by the defendant in this instant case. There is no need for the employer to reply to the letter of resignation before it becomes effective.” Justice Dabiri held.

It therefore declared Oyetunji’s sack as illegal. Apart from this, he declared her resignation letter valid and that of the bank illegal.