From Philip Oguh, Port Harcourt

Sacked workers of the Rivers State Sustainable Development Agency have approached the Appeal Court sitting in Port Harcourt for leave to appeal a decision of the National Industrial Court and to compel the Rivers State Government to pay their outstanding salaries.

The workers, numbering about 100, said they were disengaged by the Rivers State Government and their salaries have stopped since 2017.

The workers had approached the National Industrial Court sitting in Port Harcourt, and in October 2021, the court delivered a declaratory judgment, stating that their employment subsists and that both the RSSDA and the Rivers State Government are co-employers of the workers until their status of employment was determined.

The court also directed the Rivers State Government under the then Governor Nyesom Wike to pay their salaries and emoluments.

The workers, however, said the Rivers State Government refused to obey the court’s directive to date.

To get their money paid, the workers went back to the court to institute enforcement proceedings seeking an order by the court to enforce their judgment for immediate payment of their salaries and emoluments.

The court, however, refused to grant the order on the grounds that there was a subsisting appeal.

Aggrieved by the refusal of the lower court to order the payment of their salaries through the enforcement suit, the workers approached the Court of Appeal sitting in Port Harcourt with an application to overturn the decision of the lower court.

Counsel for the applicants (RSSDA workers), Isa Saidu, in his presentation on Monday, noted that the appeal was filed on 17th July, 2025, seeking the leave of the court to appeal the decision of the lower court.

Also, H. N. Amadi, a deputy director in the Rivers State Ministry of Justice who represented the respondents (RSSDA and Rivers State Government) in the matter, did not oppose the application.

After listening to both counsel, the presiding judge, Justice Elfrieda Williams-Dawodu granted the application of the workers to appeal the lower court’s decision.

Speaking later with journalists, Saidu explained that the workers are not happy with the refusal of the National Industrial Court to enforce the payment of their salaries based on pending appeals.

Saidu said there were no court records indicating any appeal against the initial judgment.

“Since the October 2021 judgment, the Rivers State Government has not complied with that judgment. Since the judgments were declaratory, we have now filed another suit with the amount due to them computed to be over N3 billion, and still running because the employment is not determined”, he stated.