TheCable

The Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN) has asked the federal government to deduct funds meant for state judiciaries from the May 2021 Federal Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) revenue.

The national working committee (NWC) of the union reached this decision on Wednesday, after a conciliation meeting with Chris Ngige, labour minister, and other stakeholders.

The union also resolved that apart from beginning the deduction from the May 2021 FAAC revenue, the arrears must also be paid from October 2020.

The union leadership agreed that the accountant-general of the federation should deduct from the federation account, the budgetary allocation submitted to him by the 36 state judiciaries in October 2020, and pay same directly to the National Judicial Council (NJC) from which the heads of courts of the states will be paid.

“The NWC in session agreed that the deduction be effected in May 2021 FAAC and with arrears from October 2020 inclusive,” a communique issued after the meeting read.

“The NWC in session further unanimously agreed that the constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) cannot be negotiated, doctored, manipulated, and therefore must be obeyed.

“The NWC in session also agreed that the establishment of the fund management law must be put in place by the 36 states of the federation within the shortest possible time.

“The NWC in session also agreed that if all the above demands are met, it will be a way of showing good faith, failure of which the ongoing industrial action continues.”

Projecting that states may not be transparent about their total revenue, JUSUN recommended that “the Fund Management Law should make provision for a penalty upon the accountant-general’s (state) failure to pay to the different arms of government what is due and payable to them within seven days of getting the federal allocation”.

“The NWC in session further strongly advocates that the fund management law should be uniform across the states of the federation,” the union added.

President Buhari, on May 22, 2020, signed into law an executive order 10 which made it mandatory for all states to include the allocations of both the legislature and the judiciary in the first-line charge of their budgets.

However, state governors are yet to carry out implementation on the order, causing JUSUN to embark on a nationwide strike which commenced on April 6, 2021.