The Plaintiff, now the Appellant in this Court was employed by the Defendant now Respondent on 22-11-1969. After serving the required number of years, his appointment was confirmed. As a confirmed officer, he continued to earn regular promotions until he attained the rank of a Senior Staff on 1-2-1980. Being a senior pensionable staff of the Defendant's company, the Plaintiff was due to retire on 25-9-1992 on reaching the retiring age of 55 years as was duly communicated to him by the Defendants' letter dated 27-11-1990. As part of the preparation for the retirement, the Plaintiff attended a pre-retirement seminar arranged by the Defendant for its retiring officers between 22-9-1991 to 27-9-1991 at Benin City. The Plaintiff who served the Defendants for over 22 years diligently was expecting to retire on 25-9-1992 on attaining the age of 55 years.

However, barely just over a month after attending the pre-retirement seminar, by a letter dated 13-11-1991, the Defendant terminated the Plaintiff's employment with an offer of 3 months basic salary in lieu of Notice. In pursuance of the termination of employment, the Defendant paid into the Plaintiff's bank account the sum of N105,385.30 being his total terminal benefits due from the Defendant. The Plaintiff's efforts to have the action taken against him on the termination of his employment reversed by the Defendant through his learned counsel having failed, he headed to the High Court of Justice of Rivers State at Port-Harcourt for redress.

The learned trial Judge in his judgment delivered on 11-10-1993 found that the Plaintiff's employment was wrongfully terminated and awarded him three months' salary and other usual monthly allowances for three months including bonus and leave allowance. All other claims of the Plaintiff were however dismissed.

Dissatisfied, the Plaintiff/Appellant appealed against the decision To the Court of Appeal which dismissed the appeal on 19-2-1998.