By Taofik Afolabi
The strike action embarked upon by the workers of Osun State Judiciary has entered its fourth week unabated without any official statement from the government of the state. It would be recalled that it was at the wake of the suspension of the state Chief Judge, Hon Justice Adepele Ojo by the state House of Assembly on various allegations bothering on financial recklessness, unlawful suspension and dismissal of staffs and other ancillary allegations, the state branch of Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN) quickly seized the moment to picket the of the office of the Chief Judge which subsequently led to indefinite strike after attacks on the persons of the branch chairman and his members by the Nigeria Police under the instructions pointing at the direction of the embattled Chief Judge.
At first when the strike started, the national headquarters of the union distanced itself from the action claiming that due process was not followed and the state branch chairman acted in interests beyond the purpose of his office.
The general position of the national headquarters of the union was that declaration of industrial action can only come when all other tools of dialogue and presentation of demands have been explored without concrete response to deal with them. It stated in its statement that at least a 14-day warning notice must have been given before such action could be taken.
While the strike lingers, the state House of Assembly released its reports on the findings from the allegations in the petitions before it and made appropriate recommendations to the Governor, Senator Ademola Nurudeen Jackson Adeleke. The findings showed that some workers were not procedurally suspended while their monthly salaries were being paid by the state government and remitted back to the Accounts department of the High Court by these staffs on the instructions of the suspended Chief Judge.
The state House of Assembly committee on the Judiciary headed by Hon Kanmi Ajibola also revealed that the exhibit in money running into millions of naira in the case of the robbery that happened in Ikirun on February 12, 2016 which was meant to be forfeited to the state by the judgment of the court that sat on the matter was diverted under the watch of the embattled Chief Judge.
In the middle of the tango between the suspended Chief Judge and the state government, the Osun state branch of JUSUN declared a total strike which shut down all other courts across the state from working and thereby puts the judiciary on hold. The hardship of not being able to seek redress is untold. How can you explain to an accused that was given a bail on Friday but could not perfect the bail conditions but woke up on the following Monday to hear that the judiciary workers have shut down the entire judiciary from working? This orchestrated industrial action has turned the various police stations in the state to centers of arbiter that have given themselves new power that should be blamed.
It is not out of place that the JUSUN in the state stands for justice for its members and made more demands for their wellbeing. It is just beyond the principle to hinge their demands on the state Chief Judge’s suspension—a task that has already been taken up by the state House of Assembly and the National Judicial Council (NJC)—and yet refuse to make the judiciary work. There is no government that would ever encourage it workforce to go and stay on indefinite strike. But as it is going in the state judiciary, it appears that state government has empowered the former chairman of the branch’s union to do lord it over the entire judges of the state, the state’s various branches of the Nigeria Bar Association and the entire citizens that need the services of the judiciary in adjudication, redress and documents. Information has it that the tenure of office of the union’s state chairman has expired on November 28 and yet, the government allows him to fester under the claim that his tenure was extended by one man their national treasurer.
In the circle of the state branch of the union where it appears that some members were not comfortable with such claim of extension of tenure because it has no place in their union’s constitution, some of them reasoned that the national headquarters that distanced itself from the strike which the state chairman openly disowned cannot turn three-sixty degree to send an envoy to the state to extend the tenure of office of the same chairman and then ask one man, the national treasurer of the union to issue a “certificate or letter of tenure extension”. They decided to dig and it was discovered that there was never any tenure extension for the chairman of the state branch of the union and that the “letter of extension” the union chairman purportedly read in their congress a few weeks ago was a forged document. These aggrieved members ventilated their anger by reaching out to the said national treasurer. He was emphatically informed that he was on the verge of polarizing the union in the state by holding a position that was alien to their constitution and they threatened a breakaway on the ground that the illegality that has continued to dominate the national leadership of the union that keeps recycling the national president since 2012 as against the provision of the union’s constitution that stipulated the maximum of two-term of four years each for the office appears to have been launched in the state branch by the act of the national. They said what their law says is that when an election cannot hold in a situation like the instant case, the national headquarters of the union which is made up of the national president, secretary and the zonal vice presidents must administer the composition of a caretaker committee of three members that will work for not more than three months within which an election into various offices of the union must be held. Their constitution goes further to state that if it is impossible for the national headquarters to do so, it has the powers to choose those that would be the members of that committee with the same mandate among the state members of staff. In the midst of this, the national treasurer of the union debunked extending any tenure for the state’s former chairman in person of one Mr. Eludire Gbenga and stated that he has no powers to do so. He went further to explicitly and expressly affirm that there is no provision for extension of office for any elected officer in the union’s constitution. By all implications, it shows that the state chairman has forged a document of such magnitude to singlehandedly extended the expired tenure of office and that of other officers.
The question they now ask is that if the Chief Judge of the state could be suspended for suspending some staffs of the institution, what happens to the branch’s chairman that suspended a whole constitution of the union and forged a document? Which offence is graver between the two misconducts?
Furtherance to that, some aggrieved members of the union claim that whatever the man parading himself as the chairman of the union in the state solicits for from the state government through the state’s Judicial Service Commission would amount to nullity in any memorandum of understanding or agreement reached because it is championed by a union that has no mandate by the doctrine of its constitution. These members cited the case of the swearing-in of the late President of the Customary Court of Appeal in the state in the year 2010. They stated that the Court of Appeal sitting in Ibadan sacked Oyinlola’s government on November 26, 2010 which was the day the late judge was sworn in by the same government. In other words, the said judge was believed to have been sworn in by an illegal government and the new government of Aregbesola had to hold another swearing-in ceremony for the said judge to legitimize the appointment of His Lordship as the President of the Customary Court of Appeal in the state.
In another dimension, these aggrieved staffs claim that the chairman failed to give account of how the union’s money was spent under his watch for eight years. Among those members, it was viewed that the said illegitimate chairman was trying to be clever by half to secure the strength of the state government so that his choice candidate among the contestants to the office of the chairman in the state branch of the union would be ‘installed’ to cut off any form of investigation into various allegations of misappropriation of fund running into millions of naira that are likely to be sought. They also asserted that their findings show that he is challenging the position of their law because the state deputy governor and commissioner of justice are his kinsmen. So, the imbroglio in the state judiciary is that in one length, there is a set of members of the union who believe that any compromise reached with the state government to attend to the plights of the judiciary staffs in the state can easily be thwarted ‘legally’ because illegitimate union is championing the course while on the other length, there is a resentment that the chairman has grossly misappropriated the fund of the union and decided to use all instrumentalism to gain weight from the state and carefree members to install his own ordained chum that would do the shoddy job of cover-up.
In all of this, it is clear that the state judiciary is in the pocket of one man who is illegally occupying the office of the chairman of the judiciary staffs union of the state. This continued strike has become baseless in the face of the struggle to reinstate the members of staff that were dislodged by the embattled Chief Judge of the state because the offence they were suspended for has been indirectly gaveled to have been committed through the compulsory retirement handed on the judge that was fished in the same saga. So, if the judge that gave the order in a matter that saw those suspended staffs erred could be forcefully retired, what is the locus of the union in the state to continue illegitimate strike for the reinstatement of those staffs? Or is the union more than the NJC and the state combined together to be heady on reinstating staffs that have been proportionately found guilty by the decision of the NJC to retire the judge that was involved in the same case?
In the same vein, the fate of the entire public to seek redress resides in this former chairman as long as the government continues to play an unnecessary role at this chaotic moment. Findings show that some members are planning to dissociate themselves from branch and form their own union as long as illegality continues to prevail over their intelligence and the man parading himself as the chairman remains in office to speak for their affairs. So, before the entire arm of government nosedives, it is not out of place for the various branches of the Nigeria Bar Association in the state to rescue the situation by calling on the state government who is the employer of the judiciary staff to derecognize the present leadership of the state chapter of the union and order workers to resume work because the public has suffered more than enough. It is also imperative for the state government to do the needful by appointing an administrative judge or direct the President of the Customary Court of Appeal to oversee the affairs of the state judiciary pending the determination of the allegations against the suspended Chief Judge of the state, if she seems to remain suspended by the state. The state government has all it takes to do all it can now to rescue the state judiciary before the opposition parties in the state begin to make mountain out of a molehill, more so that the state governor is a product of legal battle that appreciates and understands every reason why the judiciary must not be diseased.
