EXPLAINER: The 12 RELIEFS that ALDRAP is seeking from the National Industrial Court of Nigeria in respect of the Bill to increase retirement age of NASS staff lawsuit”
EXPLAINER: The 12 RELIEFS that ALDRAP is seeking from the National Industrial Court of Nigeria in respect of the Bill to increase retirement age of NASS staff lawsuit"
EXPLAINER: The 12 RELIEFS that ALDRAP is seeking from the National Industrial Court of Nigeria in respect of the Bill to increase retirement age of NASS staff lawsuit”
In a lawsuit marked as NICN/ABJ/75/2024, the Association of Legislative Drafting and Advocacy Practitioners (ALDRAP) is seeking the National Industrial Court of Nigeria to grant the following RELIEFS listed below:
1. A DECLARATION that the 1st-3rd (President of the Senate, Speaker of the House of Representatives and the Clerk to the National Assembly) defendants cannot enact a law to increase the age of retirement to sixty-five years for all staff of the National Assembly and State Houses of Assembly without first altering the Nigerian Constitution from which their office is created;
2. A DECLARATION that the 4th defendants (Speakers of State Legislatures in Nigeria) cannot enact a law to increase the age of retirement to sixty-five (65) years for all staff of the National Assembly and State Houses of Assembly without first altering the Nigerian Constitution from which their office is created;
3. A DECLARATION that the 1st -4th defendants ought not to follow the same legislative process that was applied in regards to increasing the age of retirement of judges and judicial officers from 65 to 70 years as done in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (Fifth Alteration Act (No. 37), 2023).
4. A DECLARATION that the National Assembly is constitutionally required to enact laws that are a reflection of the majority views of public interest instead of the views of a minority or their own self-interest.
5. A DECLARATION that the National Assembly Pensions Board Act, 2023 is illegal and repealed to the extent that it is in conflict with the Pensions Reforms Act, 2014, that the current Bill seeks to extend the age of retirement of staff to sixty-five years is unconstitutional and therefore should be discontinued;
6. A DECLARATION that the National Assembly Pensions Board Act, 2023 is unconstitutional, null and void for its failure to comply with the law making processes of the National Assembly as stipulated through a combined reading of Sections 58 and 60 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as altered) and the Standing Orders of both Chambers of the National Assembly.
7. A DECLARATION that the National Assembly Pensions Board Act, 2023 is unconstitutional, null and void in view of the recently released Oransaye Report, 2011 which recommended other Pension Commissions to be subsumed under the National Pension Commission.
8. AN ORDER of Interim Injunction restraining the 1st – 4th defendants, particularly their agents, assigns, privies, servants, however so called from taking steps to proceed or to increase the age of retirement to sixty-five years for all staff of the National Assembly and State Houses of Assembly without first regard to due process of law.
9. ALTERNATIVELY-AN ORDER of Perpetual Injunction restraining the 1st – 4th defendants, particularly their agents, assigns, privies, servants, however so called from taking steps to proceed or to increase the age of retirement to sixty-five years for all staff of the National Assembly and State Houses of Assembly without first regard to due process of law.
10. AN ORDER of Interim Injunction restraining the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria from assenting to the bill entitled: “A Bill for an Act to Make Provisions for the Retirement Age for Staff of National Assembly Service and for Related Matters”, pending the final determination of this case.
11. AN ORDER of Interim Injunction restraining all the defendants, particularly their agents, assigns, privies, servants, however so called from taking any steps whatsoever in respect of the subject matter in this litigation, pending the determination of this case.
12. AND FOR SUCH FURTHER ORDER (S) as this Honourable court may deem fit to make in the circumstance of this case.
