Court activities may be paralysed today as the Judiciary Staff As-sociation of Nigeria (JUSAN) begin strike nation-wide.
The association last week served a strike notice over government’s non-challant attitude towards their wel-fare.
But the board of gove-rnors of the National Judicial Institute (NJI), which cons-ists of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, President, Court of Appeal, all the Chief Judges of the State, representatives of the Grand Khadis and presidents of the Customary Court of Appeal declared the proposal strike unlawful.
A statement signed by the administrator of the insti-tute, Justice J. A. Ajakaiye, said that the “board reminds the members that they are not a registered trade union but an association which has no right to embark on such strike.”
He said that when the board met, it condemned the action of the Judiciary Staff Association of Nigeria, say-ing that the problems of the association were beyond the institute.
Ajakaiye noted, “Board observes that the problems raised by JUSAN cannot be handled without amendment of the relevant provisions of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
He said the issues raised by JUSAN are state matters which states Judicial Service Commission (JSC) can adequately deal with.
The board said that the executive committee of the Court Registrars Association had met with the Chief Jus-tice of Nigeria to discuss the same issues raised now as the purpose of the proposed strike.
The board emphasised that the judiciary is the cornerstone of democracy and rule of law, therefore it cannot afford to be distra-cted by unnecessary strike actions without exhausting all avenues for dialogue.
“The state judiciary service commission will co-ntinue to look into the wel-fare of all members of staff in the judiciary.
“The board now directs that all staff of the judiciary concerned nationwide sho-uld disregard the proposed strike action scheduled for Monday December 6, 2004.
“Any staff who fails to report for duty will be regarded as having abandoned his/her duty post and appro-priate disciplinary action will be taken accordingly.” |
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