By Innocent Anaba

LAGOS-A middle-aged man, Ndubuisi Kalu, has dragged his employer, Automative Consulting Nigeria Limited before a Lagos High Court sitting in Igbosere, demanding N100 million for alleged negligence that led to the amputation of his hand.

He wants the court to award the said sum in his favour against Automative Consulting, for its negligence, which resulted in his permanent disability.

Kalu through his counsel, Mr. Ekhator Susan, argued that he was employed by the defendant in February 2010 as a shredder fusion machine operator, who is also to grind battery cells and crush metals and aluminum.

According to him, he was never given any appropriate training required for the operations of such shredder fusion machine even when the defendant had knowledge that he had no requisite skill or knowledge in the use or operation of such machine, which was against the standard safety measure.

He said on September 8, 2010, he reported for duties and set to start operation by pouring battery materials into the machine and while his hand was still inside the machine, the machine was suddenly put on by the supervisor, and that his right limb got trapped and seriously chopped by the machine and the sad development led to lots of injury and loss of blood.

But in its statement of defence, the defendant denied that the claimant was its staff, arguing that he was just an auxiliary staff on six months probation and that the claimant was only employed to break and wash batteries, which does not require any form of special skill.