By Onyewuchi Ojinnaka
Following the suspension nine weeks old strike embarked upon by the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN), activities resumed in all the Courts nationwide from Tuesday June 15 after Monday”s democracy day holiday.
However, some litigants and lawyers were in court but may have to wait till Monday next week for full activities to commence because a thorough cleaning and fumigation may be carried out for safety reasons in all the courts.
At the Federal High Court Lagos, registrars on Tuesday were busy as they began dusting, decongestion and re-arrangement of court files, sorting out court files, while others were seen moving the files to different court rooms.
JUSUN had on April 6 embarked an indefinite nationwide strike action seeking implementation of financial autonomy for the Judiciary.
Our correspondent who was at the Federal High Court Lagos to review activities observed that all registrars of the court were all dutifully engaged in decongesting the court rooms and moving files around.
In an interview with the Deputy Chief Registrar of the court, Ms Clement Ende, she expressed delight on the resumption of courts.
She said why the files were being moved is largely due to a change in nomenclature and courtrooms, explaining that there are new judges to now take over courtrooms as well as cases of transferred judges.
Recall that few weeks before the JUSUN strike, some judges of the federal high court were transferred to other jurisdictions of the court, while the new judges were still being expected before the JUSUN strike began.
As to when the courts will now fully commence sittings, Ms Ende said that it depends on individual judges as some of the new judges may choose to first settle down and.familiarise themselves with the courtrooms.
“So, let’s give them this week to look at their files as it is the first time they will be looking into the files and then give dates,” she said
According to her, the old judges may likely begin sitting by tomorrow, but the new ones may require a little more time, probably by next week.
She said that while some of the new judges are only to take over the courtrooms of the transferred judges, others are likely to take over both the courtrooms as well as cases previously handled by those judges.
“So that is why you could see the registrars moving files; so where ever the files move, the registrars and the secretary also move because they man the old files, so they are all on ground,” Ende explained.
The new court placement of the judges and their courtrooms are as follows:
Court One — Chief Judge; Court Two — Justice Ayokunke Faji; Court Three –Justice A.L Allagboa; Court Four — Justice Chukwujekwu Aneke; Court Five –Justice D.E Osiagor; Court Six – Nicholas Oweibo; Court Seven — Justice Y. Bogoro; Court Eight — Justice A. Aluko; Court Nine — Justice P.O Lifu; Court 10 – Justice T.G Ringim and Court 11 — Justice A.O Awogboro.
One of the judges, Justice Muslim Sule Hassan of the Lagos division has now been elevated to the court of Appeal.
Meanwhile the suspension of the strike by JUSUN and the Parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria (PASAN) and resumption of work on Tuesday after the democracy day holiday, will top the agenda of the 31st NGF meeting holding virtually, on Wednesday (today) 16th June 2021.
Head, Media and Public Affairs, Nigeria Governors’ Forum Secretariat, Abdulrazaque Bello- Barkindo had made the information available to journalists.
According to his statement, efforts are already under way in all states of the federation, to either constitute the States Accounts Allocation Committees (SAAC) or to inaugurate them, preparatory to the granting of full autonomy to the two arms of government, namely, the legislature and the judiciary at the subnational level.
He said following JUSUN and PASAN strike, governors of the 36 states worked day-and-night to establish modalities for their autonomy in conformity with the constitutional provisions that stipulated thus. The Governors’ meeting will be briefed before deliberating on the Memorandum of Action (MoA) of this main item on the agenda.
According to the invitation to all the 36 Governors as issued by the Director-General of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, (NGF), Mr Asishana Bayo Okauru, the governors will be updated at the meeting on the activities of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on Covid-19, by the Governor of Delta State, Dr Ifeanyi Okowa who heads the governors’ interface with the PTF.