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Court stops FG from retiring education directors before 65
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The National Industrial Court of Nigeria has voided the Federal Government’s policy requiring education directors to retire after spending eight years in office, ruling that teachers and education officers who become directors are entitled to remain in service until they attain 65 years of age or complete 40 years of pensionable service.
Delivering judgment in Abuja on July 10, 2026, Justice O. Y. Anuwe nullified circulars issued by the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation and the Federal Ministry of Education seeking to enforce the eight-year tenure rule against teachers and education officers serving as directors.
According to the CTC obtained by our correspondent on Tuesday, the court held that the circulars were inconsistent with the provisions of the Harmonised Retirement Age for Teachers in Nigeria Act, 2022, and were therefore invalid to the extent that they applied to teachers and education officers.
“A teacher or education officer, whether he or she got to the post of director or not, is entitled to retire from service on attaining 65 years of age or 40 years of service,” Justice Anuwe held.
The judge added that serving as a director for eight years “is not a retirement condition for teachers any longer.”
The suit, marked NICN/ABJ/79/2025, was instituted by Mrs Rakiya Gambo Iliyasu, a Grade Level 17 director in the University Education Department of the Federal Ministry of Education, who challenged directives requiring directors who had spent eight years in office to retire.
Iliyasu argued that as an education officer, she qualified as a teacher under the Harmonised Retirement Age for Teachers in Nigeria Act, 2022, which guarantees compulsory retirement only at the age of 65 years or after 40 years of pensionable service.
She contended that the February 2026 circulars issued by the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation and the Federal Ministry of Education unlawfully sought to compel her and other education directors to retire before reaching the statutory retirement age.
Agreeing with the claimant, Justice Anuwe held that Section 3 of the Teachers’ Retirement Age Act expressly exempts teachers from any Public Service Rule requiring retirement before the age of 65 years or 40 years of pensionable service.
The judge also relied on the Act’s definition of a teacher, which expressly includes education officers, holding that the claimant fell squarely within the category of officers protected by the law.
The court further observed that the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation had, in an earlier 2025 correspondence, acknowledged that education officers covered by the Act were exempt from the eight-year tenure policy, making the government’s subsequent issuance of retirement directives inconsistent with its earlier position.
Consequently, the court declared the February 10, 2026, circular issued by the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation and the February 24 and February 26, 2026, circulars issued by the Federal Ministry of Education illegal, null and void insofar as they applied to teachers and education officers.
Justice Anuwe also set aside the three circulars and granted a perpetual injunction restraining the Federal Government and the Ministry of Education from implementing the eight-year tenure policy against teachers and education officers in a manner inconsistent with the Harmonised Retirement Age for Teachers in Nigeria Act.
Each party was ordered to bear its own costs.
The dispute arose after the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation and the Federal Ministry of Education issued circulars in February 2026 directing that directors who had spent eight years in office should retire in line with Rule 020909 of the Public Service Rules.
The directives affected several directors in the Federal Ministry of Education who are career education officers, despite the enactment of the Harmonised Retirement Age for Teachers in Nigeria Act, 2022, which extended the retirement age of teachers in public educational institutions to 65 years or 40 years of pensionable service.
The 2022 Act was signed into law to address the shortage of experienced teachers, improve retention of skilled education personnel and strengthen the quality of teaching and learning in Nigeria.
It also broadened the definition of teachers to include education officers, a provision that became central to the legal dispute.
The judgment is expected to have significant implications for director-level education officers across the Federal Ministry of Education and other education-related federal agencies, as it clarifies that the provisions of the Teachers’ Retirement Age Act override the eight-year tenure rule in the Public Service Rules for officers protected under the law.
Twelve people have been killed and two others sustained various degrees of injuries in a road traffic crash involving two Volkswagen cars along the Kaduna-Kachia Road in Kaduna State.
The Kaduna State Sector Commander of the Federal Road Safety Corps, Mr. Andrew Paul Longkam, who confirmed the incident, explained that those killed were eight males and four females, saying that the two females who sustained injuries had been taken to the hospital for immediate treatment.
According to him, “The accident occurred at Doka Village in Southern Kaduna and involved fourteen people, eight males and six females.”
Longkam stated that the victims were travelling in two Volkswagen Golf III cars, one blue, with registration number APP 394 FN, and the other red, with registration number ACN 205 HK, when the accident occurred.
He said the probable cause of the crash was a tyre burst, stressing that none of the occupants, as well as the two drivers, was wearing a seat belt or using any protective gear.
The commander explained that the crash was reported at about 10:20 a.m., while the rescue team arrived at the scene at 10:50 a.m. and joined soldiers and policemen in the rescue operation.
He revealed that the injured victims were evacuated to Rapha Hospital for treatment, while the bodies of those who died were deposited at Idon General Hospital, pending contact with their relatives.
Longkam stated that the two vehicles involved in the crash were later recovered and taken to Kajuru Police Station.
A 33-year-old Iranian blogger, Soda Ebrahimi Shamsabadi, has been sentenced to death after being convicted of “corruption on earth” over alleged anti-government activities, including insulting Iran’s Supreme Leader.
Shamsabadi was accused of insulting Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, engaging in media and propaganda activities deemed hostile to national security, and cooperating with governments considered hostile to Iran.
According to Iran International, prosecutors also accused her of photographing a site where a missile had struck and sending the image to a Persian-language media outlet based outside Iran.
Shamsabadi, who was raised in Tehran and later lived in Bandar Abbas, has been held at Bandar Abbas Prison since March. She reportedly spent 20 days in solitary confinement.
During the January protests, she used social media to document alleged killings and abuses linked to the unrest. In one post, she said photographs, videos, documents and eyewitness accounts existed to establish what had occurred.
Her final Instagram post, published on February 23, appeared to acknowledge the possibility that she could die.
Addressing her more than 10,000 followers, Shamsabadi wrote that if she were no longer alive, they should know that she had chosen the path she believed in.
Her sentencing comes amid growing international concern over the use of capital punishment in Iran, particularly against protesters and government critics.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk has warned that the increasing use of death sentences in Iran is intended to create fear and suppress dissent.
Iran Human Rights says at least 29 people arrested during the January protests have been executed since March. Meanwhile, the US-based Abdorrahman Boroumand Center has documented 950 executions in Iran so far this year.
Rights groups have repeatedly condemned Iran’s use of the death penalty, warning that capital punishment is increasingly being used against political dissidents and protesters.
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Just in: Five Islamic Clerics Reportedly Abducted After Praying for Tinubu’s Re-Election at Senator Yari’s Residence
Five Islamic clerics have reportedly been abducted by suspected terrorists after attending a special prayer gathering organised for President Bola Tinubu’s re-election at the residence of former Zamfara State Governor and serving Senator Abdul’aziz Abubakar Yari in Talata Mafara.
The clerics were reportedly abducted on Saturday, September 12, 2026, shortly after attending the gathering at Yari’s residence, where about 1,000 Islamic scholars were said to have gathered to pray for Tinubu’s victory in the 2027 presidential election.
It was learnt that the victims reportedly include Imam Yahuza, the First Jumma’at Imam in Dogon Madacci; Magawata Abdullahi, the Second Jumma’at Imam in Dogon Madacci; Malam Shehu Dakko; Imam Bala Fagon; and Na’ibi Tasi’u of Tungar Nagudai.
Sources said the clerics had travelled from communities in Bakura and Talata Mafara Local Government Areas to attend the prayer gathering.
Their reported abduction has raised fresh concerns over the worsening security situation in Zamfara, particularly as the incident allegedly occurred in connection with a gathering at the residence of Yari, a former governor, serving senator and Director-General of Tinubu’s 2027 presidential campaign.
The identities of the abductors and their whereabouts remained unclear as of the time of filing this report.
Security agencies have yet to issue an official statement on the reported abductions as of press time.
Also, the Zamfara State police spokesman, Yezid Abubakar has not responded to messages and calls sent to him seeking his comment.
Sad! Road auto crash claims 12 lives along Kaduna-Kachia Road
Iranian Blogger, 33, Sentenced to Death for ‘Insulting’ Supreme Leader
Just in: Five Islamic Clerics Reportedly Abducted After Praying for Tinubu’s Re-Election at Senator Yari’s Residence
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