Date: 2014-02-28

The Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN) will embark on a two-day warning strike from Wednesday, March 12th to Friday 14th over agitation for financial autonomy and independence.

The union at the end of its three-day NEC meeting in Ilorin, Kwara State, urged its members, state chapters and branches to comply while directing the closure of all gates of courts and judiciary outfits. 

National president of the union, Marwan Mustapha Adamu, who read the communiqué, said the action was informed by the failure of government to pay funds accruable to states' judiciary in the federation account directly to the heads of courts as directed by a Federal High Court, Abuja in suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS/667/2013.

The court in the order dated January 13, 2014, according to the union, also noted that the piece-meal payment/allocations of funds through the state Ministries of Finance to the states' judiciary is "unconstitutional, un-procedural, cumbersome, null, void and be abated forthwith".

The union observed that instead of the judgement debtors, the Attorney General of the Federation and state governors to implement the judgement, they resorted to threatening heads of courts and deduction of salaries of union's executives and members in their respective states.

Part of the communiqué read: "The Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria wishes to state clearly and unequivocally that the judgement/order of the Federal High Court, Abuja, is clear and unambiguous, and the financial autonomy and the independence of judiciary is non-negotiable. It is expected that from the date of the judgement/order of 13/1/2014, the Accountant General of the Federation, the Accountant General of States of the Federation, the Auditor-General of the Federation and governors, who are already served with the court order, should have completed the process of transferring/handing over all necessary accounting materials affecting judiciary of the states to the heads of courts in accordance with the judgement order".