Ganduje Ignores Court Order Over Salary Slash, Faces Showdown with Judiciary Workers
Kano State government has been accused of flaunting a court order issued on it by the Kano State High Court regarding the salaries of members of the state Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN).
JUSUN had gone to court to stop the government from further deducting its members’ salaries as the government did in November, and the court granted an interim injunction barring the government and other respondents in the case from tampering with JUSUN’s salaries, but a day after the order was granted by the court, the government cut JUSUN salaries by a substantial percentage.
The court, presided by Justice Usman Mallam Na’abba, had issued an order of interim injunction on the state government, restraining it from deducting the salaries of JUSUN members in the state.
The court heard a Motion Ex-parte moved by counsel to the applicants F. I. Umar, Esq. on Wednesday (6th January, 2021), and granted two specific orders.
The first was to restrain the defendants in the case, the state governor, the attorney-general, the commissioner of finance, the head of service and the accountant-general of the state, “from further deducting the salaries of the plaintiffs and members of JUSUN Kano State Chapter and/or creating shortfall in the funds /amount to be released/remitted as gross salary to be disbursed and paid to the plaintiff and members of JUSUN Kano State Chapter which may lead to the deduction of certain percentage in their respective salaries pending the hearing and determination of motion on notice.”
The second was to mandate the defendants “to comply with the agreement dated 19th December, 2019 entered into between Kano State Government and Joint Public Service Negotiation Council by paying the plaintiffs and members of Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN) Kano State Chapter their full salary scale under Consolidated Judicial Staff Structure (CONJUSS) as envisaged by the agreement pending the hearing and determination of Motion on Notice.”
Nigerian Sketch was told that plaintiff in the matter, Mukhtar Rabiu Lawan who, alongside 13 others, sued on behalf of themselves and as representatives of the Kano State chapter of JUSUN, had rushed to court because their November salaries were “arbitrarily tampered with by the government, and they wanted to stop such an impunity and dishonest tendency on the part of the government.”
The matter was adjourned to the 28th of January for the hearing of the motion on notice.
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