Edo judiciary workers call off 6-month-old strike

MEMBERS of the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria, JUSUN, Edo State chapter, yesterday, suspended the six months strike embarked upon by the union.

The union said it decided to suspend the strike for one month following interventions from the committees set up by the Chief Judge of the state, Justice Cromwell Idahosa and a second committee made up of eminent personalities in the state led by the Esogban of Benin Kingdom, Chief David Edebiri.
It will be recalled that the Executive Director of African Network for Environment and Economic Justice, ANEEJ, Rev. David Ugolor, had assembled eminent personalities including the Catholic Archbishop of Benin Diocese, Bishop Augustine Akubueze, to mediate in the matter with a view to calling off the six-month-old strike which had crippled the judicial arm in the state.
The workers are demanding judicial autonomy and payment of seven months’ salary arrears which the state government earlier insisted it would not honour since the workers were on strike during the said period.
However, Secretary of JUSUN, Ekhator Hope, who confirmed the suspension of the strike said: “We want to also give the governor the opportunity to commence the implementation of some of our demands, with the key one being the issue of autonomy for the judiciary which he promised that if we call off the strike he will implement. He should pay us the six months salary areas and the one for July 2014 when we went on strike, making it seven months.”