The court rooms in the four divisions of the High Court of Lagos State were thrown open on Monday as judiciary workers have suspended their industrial action after a 25-day strike.
The judicial divisions include the headquarters in Ikeja, Lagos Island, Badagry and Ikorodu.
Informed sources disclosed that the union leaders under the umbrella of the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN) met through the weekend discussing the industrial action, including the one held with officials of the state government led by the Attorney General, Ade Ipaye.
It was said that at the end of the meeting on Saturday night, JUSUN’s Chairman, Emmanuel Abioye, sent a text message to Ipaye informing him of the decision to suspend the strike.
The message stated, “Good evening sir. This is to inform your honour that the strike has been suspended in the interest of Lagos as Centre of Excellence. From Comrade Abioye (JUSUN).”
Ipaye, in a text message gave insight into the meeting held by the two parties.
The text message stated: “At a meeting with JUSUN, we made it clear that Lagos State already had a Judiciary Self Accounting Law since 1995 which is being implemented to date with the judiciary getting its recurrent vote as first line charge on the consolidated revenue fund once a month.
“We explained that capital fund cannot however be transferred monthly as it has to be accumulated and used for many projects programmed for simultaneous implementation. Besides projects are better managed by the Ministry of Works which was set up to serve all arms of government.
“In the end, our position was that Lagos State was already implementing the provisions on autonomy of the judiciary. JUSUN promised to go and look into these. Now they have resolved to suspend the strike”.
