Twenty four hours after the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN) directed its members across Nigeria to shut down the state courts in the country, members are beginning to adhere by the directive.
The union’s action is to kick against the noncompliance with the orders of the Federal High Court, Abuja on the financial autonomy and independence of the judiciary.
Channels Television’s judiciary correspondent, Shola Soyele monitored the situation in some courts across the country.
In Akwa Ibom State, South South Nigeria, judicial activities were paralysed as judiciary workers in the oil-rich state effectively stayed away from their duty posts.
The deserted premises of the judiciary Headquarters on Wellington Bassey Way, and the State High Court, on Metro road, both in Uyo is evidence that the workers are sticking to their words.
The situation is the same in Rivers State, also in the South South region of the country. The high courts and the magistrate courts remain under lock and key and the workers also stayed away.
The workers downed tools owing to the failure of the authorities to implement the judgment of a Federal High Court on the financial autonomy of the state judiciaries.
In the South West, the customary court of appeal, the state high court and the magistrate courts in Ondo State were also firmly locked.
Some judiciary union members who refused to speak on camera were on ground to make sure that the strike was effective.
In Lagos State, another South West state, the courts remained open.
Some judiciary workers who reported for work chose to assign new dates to lawyers for their pending cases, the implication being that some courts did not sit, some judges however sat and in those few courts it was business as usual.
At the Federal High Court in Lagos, the case against the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly went on; Justice Ibrahim Buba however cited fatigue and a heavy workload as reasons why his ruling on the case was not ready.
A group of people from the Apapa Local government area of the State staged a protest outside the court premises.
They are members of the All Progressive Congress (APC), and they were at the court premises to register their displeasure and show solidarity with one of the youth leaders, Mr. Bamidele Avoseh who they alleged was illegally replaced in the just concluded state delegates congress election of the party.
Their case in court however did not go on and Channels Television eventually gathered that the judge was away to represent his chief judge at an official function.
The federal courts are however yet to join in the strike as the National secretariat of the judiciary Staff Union said it will notify the Federal Judiciary workers on when to key in to the industrial action.
Despite the industrial action, Mr Willie Obiano, the governor of Anambra State, South East Nigeria, on Monday distributed 21 cars to judiciary workers of the Customary Court of Appeal in the state.
The governor, who performed the function at the helipad section of the governor’s lodge, said he is committed to the welfare of the judiciary workers in his state.
