It is the case of the appellant that he was employed by the respondent as a custom clerk on 11/1/1971 and rose to the position of Branch Manager after commendable meritorious and satisfactory services; that on 30/1011989 he was issued with a query, Exhibit P10 in which he was accused of fraud having benefited from N3,000.00 and cheque which had earlier been drawn from an account of a customer when it was not yet cleared, thereby acting contrary to Article 4 (iii) (a) of the Collective Agreement, Exhibit P.l8.

Secondly that he was issued with another query dated 12/2/1990 Exhibit P.12 accusing him of aiding and abetting forging of credentials and thus guilty of dishonesty, lapse, gross administrative fraud in breach of Article 4(iv) and (ix) of the Senior Staff Collective Agreement, Exhibit P.18 which he replied by denying the charges in, Exhibit P. ll and P.13 respectively. The matter was referred to the disciplinary committee of the respondent which found the replies of the appellant unsatisfactory and consequently found the appellant guilty of "the relative offence as charged". Consequently appellant was dismissed from the services of the respondent resulting in the institution of the present action.

On the other hand, it is the case of the respondent that appellant was the Branch Manager of Ugbokpo branch, Benue State in 1988 while Mr. Dore was the branch accountant and one Innocent Nja was a customer with account no. 209 at the branch; that the branch accountant requested Mr. Nja to bring his teller and cheque booklets to the branch which the customer did. The branch accountant then completed a sheet of the customer's teller booklet for the sum of N3,000.00 being the value of a National Bank of Nigeria cheque in possession of the accountant, the source of which was unknown to the customer. The accountant also wrote on a leaf of the customers cheque no. LA 328985 a like sum of N3,000.00 and requested the customer, who could barely write his name, to sign the cheque which he did after which the customer was asked to go without the money.

The accountant later collected the value of the cheque. The above happened in the absence of the appellant.

The cheque was subsequently brought before the appellant by the accountant and the appellant counter signed it thereby giving official approval for the transaction despite the fact that the sum involved was within the competence of the accountant to approve and the appellant's counter signature was not required. It is alleged that the appellant and the accountant shared the value or proceeds of the cheque. To privately regularize the customer's account, the appellant and the branch accountant on different and several dates directed some junior staff of the respondent to complete the branches loose tellers for the appellant/accountant who personally - contributed cash which was then lodged into the customer's account without the knowledge of the customer until the debt was settled.

When the transaction was discovered appellant was queried vide Exhibit P. 10 but appellant did not deny using his personal money and that of the accountant to regularize the debit of N3,000.00 in that account neither did he deny that the instalmental payments were not reflected in the customer's teller booklet.

It is also the case of the respondent that despite established rules and regulations of the respondent in connection with employment of indigenes of the catchment area of operation when employing low level workers, appellant brought his brother, Edward Ojo Imonikhe from his home town, Afuze, Edo State and got him employed as security officer in his Ugbokpo branch, Benue State. In the process the surname of his brother was completely dropped. When the facts came to light appellant was queried to which appellant wrote Exhibit P. 13 in reply; that the disciplinary committee of the respondent went through the replies and found them unsatisfactory and accordingly dismissed the appellant for gross misconduct resulting in the action.