NCC established DBI in May 2004 to train personnel in the wake of the phenomenal worldwide growth of telecommunications and Information Communications Technology (ICT).

The staff of the new organisation enjoyed the same conditions of service with the NCC from the outset.

But trouble started in 2006 when an upward review of the conditions of service was done to the exclusion of DBI staff members.

Ahamefuna Agbo and 16 of his colleagues protested the exclusion and demanded equal conditions of service with their counterparts at the NCC.

But both NCC and DBI were unable to resolve the crisis. This led Mr Agbo and his colleagues to file a suit at the National Industrial Court in 2014.

After hearing all parties in the suit, the judge, Z.M. Bashir, held that the 17 claimants were entitled to “all rights, privileges, emoluments, salaries and perquisites of office” pertaining to the conditions of service of the DBI.

Delivering judgement on July 11, 2018, the judge ordered the institute to “compute and pay to the claimants all outstanding entitlements including salaries, allowances and all other employment benefits accruing to the claimants.”  However, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the Digital Bridge Institute (DBI), has refused to restore the employment of 17 workers it sacked in March 2019, despite presidential and parliamentary directives.