NLC knocks govs for disobeying court order

NLC President, Mr Abdulwaheed Omar

The Nigeria Labour Congress, has criticized state governors for disobeying a Federal High Court order directing that funds meant for all state judiciary as allocations from the Consolidated Revenue Fund should be paid directly to heads of the state courts.

The congress blamed the governors for the industrial action by judicial workers as a result of the refusal of the states to obey the January, 2014 order delivered by Justice A.F. Ademola.

Among other things, the court also declared as unconstitutional, null and void piece-meal payments or allocations of funds through the states’ ministries of finance to the state judiciary at the pleasure of state governors.

In a statement signed by the NLC President, Abdulwaheed Omar, in Abuja on Sunday, the union said it was dismayed by the refusal of the governors to comply with the court order, noting that the governors were the greatest beneficiaries of judgments of courts and tribunals.

The congress advised the governors to comply with the court judgement and warned them to stop behaving like outlaws.

The union said, “We are surprised that despite receiving copies of the judgement, none of the 36 state governors have complied with the judgement and this has caused the judicial workers under the auspices of the Judicial Staff Union of Nigeria to proclaim a strike that have effectively shut down all state judiciary in the country since July 11, 2014.

“For us, we believe all the governors are the greatest beneficiaries of not just constitutional democracy, some of them are indeed direct beneficiaries of judgements of courts or tribunals of competent jurisdiction and it would be a dangerous precedence for the governors to be leading in blatantly refusing to obey a judgement that has been made by a court of competent jurisdiction as this will be an open encouragement of anarchy and a daring promotion of impunity.”

The congress observed that the issues at stake were fundamentally constitutional, stressing that the governors’ handling of funds meant for their state judiciaries had been in breach of the 1999 Constitution and the court had nullified this.

“The governors must comply with the judgement or follow appropriate judicial processes and stop behaving as outlaws,” the NLC cautioned.

The union expressed support for the strike by the judicial workers, adding that it would take every step necessary to ensure the full success of the strike, which according to the congress, commenced after the failure of the interventions of stakeholders in getting the governors to obey the judgement without recourse to industrial action.

“When beneficiaries of democratic processes stand against constitutional and legal procedures, they should be considered a major obstacle to the sustenance of democracy.

“The governors have shown their collective disdain for democratic processes and are therefore obvious promoters of impunity and Nigerians should consider them part of the anti-democratic elements who constitute danger to democracy in Nigeria,” the NLC stated.

It reassured the judicial workers of its firm solidarity with their struggle to enforce their rights, “which the governors seem collectively determined to undermine.”

While commending the Federal Government for implementing the constitutional provision (allocation to judiciary), the NLC called on all Nigerians, including the legislature at state and national levels to support the struggles of the judicial workers “as this is also part of struggles that will ultimately ensure full independence of the judiciary in Nigeria.”