The Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria on Monday vowed to continue its ongoing nationwide industrial action despite an agreement reached on May 20 to meet their demands.
JUSUN hinged its decision to continue the strike that started on April 6 on the fact that state governors had failed to sign the agreement and begin implementation as expected.
The union’s National Treasurer, Jimoh Musa, disclosed this in an interview with our correspondent on Monday.
Recall that on May 20, state governors and the leadership of JUSUN and Parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria signed an agreement on the modalities and timelines for the commencement of full financial autonomy for state judiciary and legislative arms of government.
According to the agreement, all states are required to pass and assent to the Funds Management Law and the state House of Assembly Service Commission Law, as well as put in place implementation structures within a timeframe not exceeding 45 days from the date of signing the document.
But JUSUN treasurer told our correspondent on Monday that the governors had yet to sign the agreement.
Musa said, “Up till this moment, the governors have not appended their signatures on the agreement.
“They proposed all those paragraphs that were not even acceptable to us, but because we want peace to reign and start from somewhere, we signed that agreement for them to go and countersign. They reneged on the agreement they brought before us.”
He added that the Federal Account Allocation Committee had recently disbursed money to the states and it appeared the money had been utilised; thus, the governors reneged on the agreement.
He added, “Even if they sign today, where is the money to credit the account of the judiciary as promised as contained in the agreement?
“We are resolute; we will tell the whole world the kind of people we are dealing with and the strike will continue in another shape.”
Musa added that the union was aware that the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal had delivering judgments in spite of the JUSUN strike.
“We discovered the virtual judgments and proceedings that were going on. Some of them are not even at the court premises. They do it from their homes.
“We have appealed to them today that we will not like to hear any judgment or proceeding from any court. We have posted people to different courts to ensure that nobody goes through the court anymore until this matter is resolved.”
Copyright PUNCH.
