Technical committee to work out modalities for implementation of agreements
Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria, JUSUN, has called off the industrial action it embarked on to protest the non-implementation of the judgment of a Federal High Court in Abuja, which had ordered that funding for the States judiciary be paid to the National Judicial Council, NJC, directly from the federation account.
In a Memorandum of Understanding, MOU, signed between the representative of the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Emeka Wogu, the President of the Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC, Abdulwaheed Omar, JUSUN President, Marwan Mustapha Adamu, representative of the Attorney-General of the Federation, AGF, and Minister Bola Odugbesan, Eugene Odukwu from the NJC, Kayode Adetokunbo, SAN representative of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, Udo Hillary Isobara for the Chairman, Accountant-General’s Forum, and Director Fiscal office of the Accountant-General of the Federation, it was resolved that the state governments are obliged to respect the provisions of the 1999 Constitution and comply with the judgment of the Federal High Court Abuja.
It was also resolved that the issues in dispute are constitutional matters in which judgment had been given in a suit with number FHC/CS/667/13 between JUSUN and the National and others and that the Federal Government was not in breach of the Constitution and therefore the judgment cannot be enforced against it.
The MOU further said that a technical committee should immediately work out the modalities for the implementation of the court judgment/order dated January 13th,2014 and that the period of working out the aforementioned modalities and its implementation shall not exceed forty five days from the date of signing the MOU and effective date from Monday August 4th,2014.
According to the MOU “no JUSUN member shall be victimised as a result of participating in the strike.
Nigerian Pilot Saturday recalled that JUSUN had on July 11th 2014 embarked on a nation-wide industrial action to protest the non-implementation of the Federal High Court Abuja Division presided over by Justice Adeniyi Ademola, who had on January 13th declared unconstitutional the continued funding of state judiciary through the state governments and ordered that subsequently funds meant for states’ judiciary be paid through the NJC.