Court Awards N10.5m Damages Against BAT Over Job Offer Revocation

The Lagos division of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria (NICN) has ordered British American Tobacco Marketing (Nigeria) Limited to pay N10 million in damages to a Cameroonian professional after finding that the company’s withdrawal of its employment offer caused him significant loss.

The court presided over by Justice A. N. Ubaka in a judgment delivered on June 30, 2026, also awarded N500, 000 in costs in favour of the claimant, Mr. Eithel Effiang Chuyeh Mbunkur, directing that the sums be paid within 30 days or attract interest at the rate of 15 per cent per annum until fully settled.

Mbunkur through his lawyer, Oluwole Kehinde, had approached the court seeking declarations that the termination of his employment based on an alleged negative background check was wrongful and contrary to international labour standards. 

He also demanded N350 million as compensation, claiming he resigned from his previous job in Cameroon, processed relocation documents, obtained a Nigerian STR visa and made extensive preparations to resume work in Nigeria before the offer was revoked.

The claimant argued that although the defendant repeatedly relied on the outcome of a background check to withdraw the offer, it never disclosed the contents of the report or gave him an opportunity to respond to any adverse findings.

But the British American Tobacco through its lawyer, Agba Eimunjeze, who led the dou of Blossom Adebomi and Idowu Babatunde, in its counter to the suit, maintained that the employment offer was conditional upon a satisfactory medical examination and background check. 

The company also contended that the claimant failed the background verification process and that it acted within its contractual rights to revoke the offer. While adding that no binding employment relationship existed because the claimant allegedly did not validly accept the offer.

In its judgment, the court rejected the company’s argument that no valid contract existed, holding that the evidence, including the offer letters, visa processing documents and email correspondence, established that there was a valid employment agreement between the parties. 

The judge noted that the defendant had gone as far as processing the claimant’s Subject to Regularization (STR) visa, demonstrating that the employment process had substantially progressed.

Justice Ubaka, however, declined to grant the claimant’s request for a declaration that the termination was wrongful, holding that employers are entitled to conduct background checks. 

Nevertheless, the judge found that the claimant deserved compensation because he had resigned from his previous employment in reliance on the defendant’s representations.

Accordingly, the court awarded N10 million as damages and N500,000 as costs, for the losses he suffered following the revoked job offer.