JUDICIARY workers in Kogi State on Monday protested against the alleged plot by the state government to forcefully use the state house of assembly to remove the Chief Judge, Justice Nasiru Ajanah from office.
The workers under the aegis of the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN) staged the protest at the premises of the magistrate court, Lugard road, Lokoja, the state capital.
News abounds in the State that the governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, over the weekend instructed the Speaker of the assembly, Matthew Kolawole, to unlawfully remove Ajanah from office.
The plot was said to have been planned for execution when the assembly resume sitting tomorrow.
However speaking during the protest, the state chairman of the JUSUN, Comrade Emmanuel Waniko, warned the speaker against the plot to illegally and forcefully remove the Chief Judge.
The protesting workers carried various placards with inscriptions like “Why are you punishing us”, “Pay us our salary”, “Bello you benefited from judiciary why are you fighting us.”
According to him, it was important the union make the call following the reports on the clandestine moves by the governor and the alleged directive to the speaker to disobey the subsisting order given on 13th December, 2018 by the High Court of Kogi State Koton-Karfe division, asking the state assembly to stay any action on the ongoing impasse between the executive and judiciary arms of Kogi State.
He said: “We were last paid in June 2018 which makes it a total of nine months today that we are being owed our legitimate salaries. We are therefore upbeat that even after almost four months that our courts are shut down because of our ongoing strike, the state assembly would make itself available to further foster another crisis on the state through this proposed illegal removal of the Chief Judge.”
The union, however, expressed its readiness to correct the wrongs been perpetuated in the state by Bello, calling on the state assembly to steer clear of the crisis and should use its constitutional authority to bring sanity to the state by calling the governor to order.
Waniko said: “Any attempt to bring the hallowed chambers of the state judiciary into disrepute through this glaring and obvious miss governance in the state by illegally pronouncing the removal of the Chief Judge would be stoutly resisted.
“We will also use this opportunity to encourage our members and urge our judiciary officers not to fall for the antics of the clear underperforming administration of governor Yahaya Bello.
“We are aware that he has been shopping for any judge that will compromise and betray the judiciary but we have confidence in your integrity which has stood Kogi State judiciary out among other states in the country.”
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