* As Magistrates And Judges In Kogi State Unable To
Discharge Their Responsibility
Magistrates and other Judges of the lower court in Kogi State
are being owed salaries for the months of July, August, September,
October and November 2018, by the Governor Yahaya Bello led
government of Kogi state.
TheNigerialawyer gathered from a reliable source that as a
result of the situation, it has become extremely difficult for
these magistrates to meet their personal needs. It has also become
equally difficult for them to sit in their various courts and
discharge their responsibilities as magistrates.
It is believed that the Kogi state government has since
collected its Statutory Monthly Allocations for all the months in
question but consistently failed to remit the share meant for the
judiciary to it to enable the latter settle the salaries of its
personnel which has led to this accumulation in salary arrears over
these several months.
Recently the kogi state government got its share of the last
tranche of Paris Club refund but rather than give the judiciary its
share of the fund to pay the accumulated salary arrears of its
personnel, the state government is instead curiously insisting on a
strange system of “table payment” whereby officials of the state
government (ie officials of the executive arm of government) will
physically pay judicial officers and other personnel of the
judiciary their salaries by way of what the government terms “table
payment”.
For the time being, The Chief Judge of Kogi state, the Grand
Kadi of the Sharia Court of Appeal of Kogi state, the President of
the customary court of Appeal of Kogi state and the entire members
of the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria(JUDSUN) kogi state chapter
have all kicked against this arrangement by the Kogi state
government which according to them is an attempt by the kogi state
government to completely muscle the judiciary and render it
ineffective and completely subservient to the executive.
This is clearly against the wordings and spirit of the 1999
constitution (as amended).
It is equally a wake up call to the federal government of
Nigeria to implement the recently signed the Fourth Alteration to
the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria which provides
for Financial Autonomy to state judiciaries.
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