BY IKECHUKWU NNOCHIRI

ABUJA – An Abuja High Court sitting in Maitama, yesterday, fixed July 20 to commence hearing on a suit that was instituted before it by a Nigerian lady, Mrs. Ramatu Umar Bako, who is demanding N300 million damages from the British Council, following her alleged illegal dismissal from office.

The plaintiff is praying the court to invoke its jurisdiction against the defendant, saying she was arbitrarily sacked from her job as Public Diplomacy Portfolio Manager, on April 1, 2010, as an aftermath of an altercation she had with her white colleague during an ‘Active Citizen’s Participant Programme’ that was held by the council in Kano, last year.

Mrs. Bako, who told the trial court that she was employed in the British Council on November 19, 2007, said she was dismissed on the ground that she allegedly disseminated malicious rumours against one Mr Ben Fisher, who she said was the Director of the council’s programme that held in Kano in 2010.