JUSUN Vows To Continue Strike Indefinitely In Ogun

Adesewa Odekunle and Ahmed Abdulrazak

ABEOKUTA - The Ogun State chapter of Judiciary Staff Union Workers (JUSUN) has vowed to continue their industrial action Indefinitely until their demands are met by the State Government.

The State Vice Chairman of the Union, Comrade Omololu Olusanya disclosed this on Thursday at a peaceful protest to the Ogun State Governor's office, Abeokuta.

Comrade Olusanya maintained that, the financial autonomy of the judiciary would ensure independence of the judiciary and improve speeding process of court cases.

He insisted that, allocation accrued to the judiciary should be directly paid to the judiciary account.

"We are on the streets because we are agitating on full financial autonomy for the judiciary and we have been on strike for the past two weeks now. We have on several occasions engaged the state government on this matter, but they are not turning up. That is why we are creating an awareness for our people to know what is going on within the system that Judiciary workers are on strike. 

"If there's no autonomy, we are not going back to work. No Autonomy, no Surrender. What we really want is that all the money accrued to Judiciary, we want it to be paid to the head of the Court, that's the autonomy. Presently, we are begging for money from the executives, If our Judges want to buy a car, they'll go there to beg for money which we have the money allocated to Judiciary. That is why we want we want full autonomy, total independence so that there will be no influence whatsoever.

"Several meetings have been called but the government failed to respond. At times, they'll call meeting and we'll be there waiting for them but they won't show up. That means they don't have anything to say. This Autonomy is constitutional, we have gone to court, even there are three judgement pending before the government. The Agbakoba versus Attorney-General of Ekiti, Agbakoba versus FG, JUSUN went to court as well, got a judgement from a competent court of law, now they are not responding.

"The strike will continue until they respond to our agitation, we'll stay at home until we are sure of the implementation of the judiciary financial autonomy. 

"The interest of Justice is filled but that's the sacrifice we want to make. As a matter of fact, this JUSUN strike is about having a good democracy, it's about the beauty of democracy. When the executive, legislature and judiciary is independent, that is when we can enjoy democracy. 

"Full independence of Judiciary will bring out beauty of democracy within the system," Olusanya stated.