Osun Courts Shutdown Lingers Over Recall Of Suspended Staff — Adetunbi SAN

A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Mr. Musibau Adetunbi, has said failure to recall the wrongfully suspended five court workers, was the only clog in the wheel of the process of ending the industrial action embarked on by court workers in Osun State.

The strike has brought untold hardship to litigants, suspects, lawyers and other stakeholders, who are unable to access court services.

Members of the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN) embarked on an industrial action on November 22, last year to press home their demands for the recall of the five members of staff, who were suspended by the chief judge, and other sundry issues.

The other issues are stoppage of workers training since 2015; inadequate implementation of workers promotion, advancement and regularisation; non-payment of wardrobe allowance as well as poor working conditions and maintenance of court infrastructures.

According to JUSUN in the state, the five members were suspended for periods running into 57 months and 46 months, with all efforts to recall them proving abortive, even after two of them tried for criminal offences had been discharged and acquitted by a magistrates’ court.

Adetunbi told reporters after hearing the issue at the National Industrial Court (NIC), Ibadan that contrary to what many people think, Osun State Government has met all the conditions stipulated by the striking workers, except the recall of the five workers, a decision, he explained, was in the purview of the state’s Judicial Service Commission (JSC) and the Chief Judge.