Justice O.A. Obaseki-Osaghae of the National Industrial Court (NIC) sitting in Abuja has affirmed the dismissal of Yisa Usman, a former deputy director of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), after dismissing his suit challenging the decision of the examination body.
 
Usman, who joined JAMB as Accountant II in September 1997 and rose through the ranks to the position of Deputy Director, was dismissed from the service of the board on July 3, 2023, following ministerial approval of the report of the Directorate Staff Disciplinary Committee (DSDC) set up to investigate his conduct.
 
Before his dismissal, Usman had earned several negative reprimands for various acts of misconduct, including absence from duty without official permission, making false representations and providing misleading information, and refusal to hand over passwords to the official email of the Kogi State office.
 
The board also found that he had undertaken a full-time Masters Degree programme at Kogi State University while serving as State Coordinator in Lokoja and Kaduna without prior official permission, as required by the Public Service Rules.
 
In September 2023, Usman approached the court seeking, among other reliefs, a declaration that his dismissal was unlawful, an order reinstating him to his position with full entitlements, a promotion to the position of Director of Finance and Accounts, and exemplary damages of N150 million for what he described as malicious, illegal and arbitrary treatment.
 
He told the court that the Disciplinary Committee was improperly constituted in breach of Article 3.5.4 of JAMB’s Staff Manual, and that its membership included directors against whom he had raised issues, rendering it incapable of affording him fair hearing.
 
He also contended that there was no Governing Board in place at the time of his dismissal, and that the Minister of Education lacked the authority to approve his dismissal in the board’s absence.
 
Usman further told the court that the period given to him to appear before the committee was too short, and that he rejected the constitution of the committee by his letter of May 17, 2023, stating he would not appear before any committee constituted or headed by the Registrar. He subsequently received a dismissal letter dated July 3, 2023, without any prior response from the board to his objections.
 
JAMB, through its counsel A.J. Owonikoko (SAN), disputed these claims. The board maintained that the queries issued to Usman followed due process and that the disciplinary proceedings fully complied with the requirements of fair hearing. It stated that the Registrar and the Director of Finance recused themselves from the disciplinary sitting before proceedings commenced.
 
The board further stated that the committee’s composition, approved at the seventh meeting of the Governing Board in September 2019, superseded the provisions of Paragraph 3.5.4 of the Staff Manual being relied upon by Usman. It added that in the absence of a Governing Board, the supervising ministry was eligible to sit in the proceedings of the committee, and that ministerial approval of the dismissal was within the powers conferred by Section 6 of the JAMB Establishment Act.
 
In her judgment delivered on June 2, 2026, Justice Obaseki-Osaghae dismissed the suit in its entirety.

On the question of fair hearing, the judge held that Usman was not denied the right to be heard. She noted that he was issued queries to which he responded in writing, and was subsequently invited to appear before the Disciplinary Committee on May 19, 2023. The judge found that his decision not to appear was entirely his own and held that this was insufficient to vitiate the proceedings.
 
“Fair hearing is simply ‘hear the other side’,” the judge held. “The Claimant was given the opportunity to appear before the Disciplinary Committee. By his own choice, he refused to appear.”
 On the composition of the committee, the judge held that its membership reflected the Federal Character principle and carried ministerial approval in the absence of a Governing Board, which was lawful under Section 6 of the JAMB Establishment Act.
 
On the gravity of the misconduct established against Usman, the judge was unsparing.
 
“From the totality of the evidence adduced, I find that the misconduct of the claimant is grave and weighty. He willfully disobeyed constituted authority. This has eroded and undermined the confidence reposed in him by the Defendant to carry out his duties,” she held.
 
Quoting the Supreme Court in Sule v. Nigerian Cotton Board, the judge observed that when a servant grows too big to obey his master, the honourable course open to him is to resign, and that disobedience ranks as one of the worst forms of misconduct in any establishment.
 
“This is the exact scenario that has played out in this case. The Claimant has grown too big to obey the Defendant, his master and employer. The Claimant behaved as if he was his own boss, accountable only to himself,” the judge held.
 
The court accordingly dismissed the case in its entirety and awarded costs of N250,000 against Usman in favour of JAMB.