The General Manager (Legal) of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Mr. Mahmud Bayo Alabidun, will proceed to the court today to file a N1billion legal action against the federal government over what he described as “illegal disengagement from office.”
Joined in the suit against the federal government in which Alabidun is praying the court to order N1 billion as damages in his favour are President Goodluck Jonathan and the minister of aviation, Mrs. Stella Odua, while FAAN will be joined later in the course of the proceedings because of the requirement of a pre-action notice.
He is contending that his removal from office was unconstitutional, null and void.
Report of his purported disengagement from FAAN on the orders of President Jonathan got into the media after the general manager was served with a letter of the said decision last Wednesday. Already, Alabidun had served FAAN with a pre-action notice.
He told LEADERSHIP that he was prepared to challenge the decision, which he described as executive rascality, before the court, not just for his sake, but for posterity.
He saod, “Nigerians have been under the military administration for long that we have taken a lot of things for granted. I am not a personal staff of Mr. President and neither did I fall within the category of staff that the President can appoint or sack.
“I was employed as a public servant by FAAN which has conditions of service that spells out how I can be removed. A letter of disengagement with immediate effect is certainly not listed as one of the methods of terminating my employment.
I do not see how my service is affecting the transformational agenda of Mr. President to warrant his interest in me. I am not a director and as stated in the letter of disengagement; my office is only a unit in FAAN.”