…Says he was wrongly removed
The Nigerian Judiciary has proven that it is indeed the bastion of hope for the oppressed as it ruled in favour of Prof. Charles Inyangete, the former Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Nigeria Mortgage Refinancing Company (NMRC) who was unceremonously removed from office.
Inyangete was removed from office in 2017 by the board with about two years left in his employment contract.
He approached the court to challenge the injustice melted to him and after about two years of legal war, Inyangete who was represented by Mr. Solomon Umoh, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) got judgement in his favour.
The case which had been on for about two years was between the Claimant, Prof. Inyangete and the defendants NMRC and Dr. Charles Okeahalam.
Inyangete joined the company in November 2014, on a five years contract following the incorporation of NMRC as a key component of the Nigeria Housing Finance Programme (NHFP) funded under a US$300 million IDA Facility from the World Bank Group.
His appointment was however terminated by the current Board of NMRC after about three years and five months. The former NMRC boss tenure was expected to expire on December 2019.
Ruling on the case on 22nd February 2021, the National Industrial Court presided over by Hon. Justice O.O Oyewunmi after listening to arguments from both counsels, Umoh for the Claimant and Oyebode and Aluko for the defendants, ruled that the board was wrong in its entirety in removing Inyangete from office.
Oyewunmi who vindicated Inyangete of any wrong doing also ordered the Board to grant him all his entitlement up to the end of his contract of employment.
During his tenure, he saw the growth of the company from a 3-man start up charged with launching unto a nascent and very challenging Nigerian mortgage market with a clear mandate to grow the primary and secondary mortgage markets and promote home ownership in Nigeria to a sector leader.
Under his watch, the NMRC’s executed the first mortgage-backed bond issuance (N440 billion) programme on the African continent in July 2015, backed by an conditional guarantee of the Federal Government of Nigeria.
The N8 billion raised from that exercise was deployed to the refinancing of legacy and new mortgages of NMRC member banks that conform to NMRC’s uniform underwriting standards for the formal sector, another transformative product developed by NMRC.
