The Nasarawa State Chapter of the Judicial Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN), has commenced an indefinite strike following the failure of the state’s Chief Judge (CJ), Justice Suleiman Dikko, to meet their demands on welfare issues.
Jimoh Musa, state chairman of the union, told newsmen on Tuesday in Lafia, that the union was rejecting in total, the scraping of the Customary Court of Appeal in the state.
Musa said the decision to embark on the strike was reached at a congress because of the insensitivity and refusal of the CJ to address their demands.
He explained that the National Judicial Commission (NJC), had given three slots for the appointment of judges into the Customary Court in 2018, but nothing was done to reopen the court up till now.
He explained that the management of the judiciary in the state were claiming that the government was taken to court therefore, no further action could be taken.
“We reached a consensus that if the CJ did not meet our demands that has been lingering, we will resume our suspended indefinite strike.
“We have been too patient and have tried hard to avoid this last resort but we have no choice but to press home our demands,” he said.
Musa said that other grievances of the union included the none conversion or promotion of workers, who went for further studies legitimately, in the last four years.
He said that the union was also unhappy with the inordinate reduction of workers’ salaries and the union had tried to resolve the issue amicably but the management refused to listen.
The chairman said that their agitations had nothing to do with the Gov. Tanko Almakura of Nasarawa State, because he had been keeping faith with them, by providing all they wanted.
He advised members of the union to be calm, resolute and determined to overcome the challenges ahead of them, until all their demands were fully met.
Addressing the members at the State House of Assembly, Mr Ego Maikeffi, Clerk of the House, expressed gratitude to the members for their peaceful protest.
He then assured them that their message would be delivered to the Speaker of the Assembly for prompt action.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the union staged a peaceful protest at the High Court Headquarters, Lafia, and the House of Assembly to present their grievances.
NAN also recalls that Abdulkareem Kana, the State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, recently said that the government would reopen the court.
He then appealed to those who took the government to court over the scraping of the Customary Court to withdraw the case, to enable the government restructure and reopen the court.
