Normal activities in Magistrates’ Courts in Abuja, on Tuesday, following the suspension of the 64-day-old strike by the Judicial Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN).
NAN reports that the strike, the longest industrial action in the Nigerian judiciary was suspended on June 9, following a meeting between officials of the union and the National Judicial Council (NJC) led by the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Ibrahim Muhammad.
Both parties agreed that the strike should be called off in the interest of the nation and to give room for the implementation of agreements JUSUN reached with the Federal Government.
NAN that the union JUSUN had begun a nationwide strike on Tuesday, April 6, when the union directed all its members across the federation to shut down all courts after the expiration of the 21-day ultimatum earlier given over the failure of the government to implement the law.
A NAN correspondent who monitored activities at Zone Six Magistrates’ Court, reports that staff members were seen attending to lawyers and litigants.
A Registrar at Zone Six Magistrates’ Court, Mr Aliyu Wakama, said, “the courts have fully resumed, some lawyers and litigants are on ground to take new dates for their cases while others are here to file new ones.
Also speaking, a Registrar at the Life Camp Magistrate Court, Mr Aminu Abubakar also affirmed that activities have fully resumed at the court.
“Although we did not sit today, everyone has resumed work and we are waiting to get directive from the Chief Magistrate to commence issuing new dates for cases.
NAN reports that some courts in Gwagwalada, FCT, recorded low turnout.
Some of the lawyers told NAN that they were in court to get new dates for debriefed cases.
NAN reports that a verdict of the Federal High Court in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, had in January 2014 held that financial autonomy for the judiciary is a constitutional provision that must be complied with by the executive branch of government.
On May 23, President Buhari signed into law the Executive Order to grant financial autonomy to the legislature and the judiciary across the 36 states of the country.
The order also mandates the Accountant-General of the Federation to deduct from source amount due to state legislatures and judiciaries from the monthly allocation to each state for states that refuse to grant such autonomy.
The Attorney General of the Federation Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, said Executive Order No. 10 of 2020 made it mandatory that all states of the federation should include the allocations of both the legislature and the judiciary in the first-line charge of their budgets.
According to the AGF: “A Presidential Implementation Committee was constituted to fashion out strategies and modalities for the implementation of financial autonomy for the State Legislature and State Judiciary in compliance with section 121(3) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as Amended).”
NAN reports that the Nigeria Governors Forum said it will start implementing financial autonomy for the judiciary latest by May ending, a pledge that indicated that an end to the ongoing strike that has crippled the nation’s judiciary may be in sight.