Court gavel
National Industrial Court sitting in Akure has begun hearing a ₦100 million lawsuit filed by a former Territory Manager of Guinness Nigeria Plc, Mr. Ntima Anya, who claims he was unlawfully and inhumanely dismissed by the multinational beverage giant.
Anya, through his lawyer, Mr. Samuel Nmesi, opened his case on Tuesday, submitting 36 documents as evidence before Justice K.D. Damulak. The documents were accepted by the court, which adjourned the matter to November 27 for cross-examination by Guinness’s defence counsel, Mr. Ade Abioye.
Guinness Nigeria Plc and Mr. Moshood Adejoro—Anya’s former line manager and current employee of the company—are listed as the defendants in the suit.
Anya, who oversaw operations in the Ilorin/Offa region, claims his October 30, 2020 dismissal was orchestrated without due process, and driven by bias, professional misconduct, and a campaign of intimidation by his superiors.
The claimant told the court that despite submitting a medical report from Olanrewaju Hospital in Ilorin that highlighted dangerously high blood pressure, Guinness refused to grant him medical or annual leave. Instead, he alleges, he was compelled to work through the COVID-19 lockdown and ordered to sell nearly expired Dubic Malt products—actions he said compromised both his health and ethical standards.
Anya further described the manner of his dismissal as degrading, stating that company assets were publicly seized and that he was forced to sign a termination letter at a distributor’s premises in Ilorin—without any formal clearance or debriefing despite nearly a decade of service.
He also accused the company of expelling him from a hospital on the very day he was sacked and downplaying his hypertensive condition as “ordinary sickness.” As a result, Anya claimed, his health deteriorated sharply, leading to serious vision problems that now require corrective lenses.
Describing the dismissal process as deeply flawed, Anya dismissed the company’s justification—that he had failed a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP)—as false. According to him, internal emails submitted to the court revealed timeline discrepancies, casting doubt on the legitimacy of the PIP and pointing to a possible cover-up.
Among the exhibits presented were his medical records, ECG scans, commendation letters, corporate awards, salary review documents, and a death certificate for his mother, who he said died after he could no longer afford her medication post-dismissal.
Anya also submitted a Certified True Copy of a 2023 judgment from the National Industrial Court in Port Harcourt, where a former Guinness employee, Bright Nwosu, won a similar wrongful termination case.
His counsel, Mr. Nmesi, argued that the case goes far beyond a routine labour dispute. “This isn’t just about wrongful dismissal—it’s about endangering a man’s life. What Guinness did is tantamount to attempted homicide,” he said, urging the court to recognize a broader pattern of abuse within the company.
The case continues on November 27.
