Eighteen months after, the Bayelsa State Government has appealed the ruling of the Industrial Court of Nigeria, given by Justice Bashir Alkali on 22 November 2023, in favour of a civil servant and veteran journalist, Nengi Josef Ilagha.
Although dated 14 November 2024, the appeal was entered in the records of the Appeal Court in Port Harcourt on 19 May 2025. The government is contesting the judgement of the Industrial Court in its entirety.
After five years of litigation, Justice Bashir Alkali had ruled that the state government should pay the hard-working civil servant his rightful emoluments across the 15-year span of his denial, and retire him from the state civil service with full benefits.
Popularly known as Pope Pen The First, Ilagha worked as Editor of the Tide On Sunday at the Rivers State Newspaper Corporation, Port Harcourt for four years under military and civilian administrations, before proceeding on secondment to serve as Speech Writer to the Bayelsa State Governor, following the creation of the state.
From 2000 to 2007, he served the first two civilian administrations of Chief Diepreye Alamieyeseigha and Dr. Goodluck Jonathan with equal zeal, during which he was promoted to occupy the office of Special Adviser on Research and Documentation.
A pioneer editorial staff of the Bayelsa State Newspaper Corporation, publishers of New Waves, Ilagha was later appointed General Manager of the corporation, before a peremptory suspension order, which has proven to be wrongful and unfair in the eyes of the law.
The Mingi-Yai of Nembe Kingdom, Ilagha is an award-winning poet, author of several books, including Mantids, Royal Mail, The Militant Writes Back, Sermons From The Oxbow Lake, Happy Hour With My Governor, and Epistles to The President. He is also a public relations consultant of considerable repute.
He was inducted as a Fellow of the Association of Nigerian Authors at the Mamman Vatsa Writers’ Village, Abuja, in November 2023.
He retired from the Bayelsa State Civil Service when he attained the statutory age of 60 in December 2023. He is the publisher of Coastline News Network, a monthly magazine with a trained focus on the Niger Delta.
