Oni, AC trade words over JUSUN strike - Ekiti can’t be exempted from national strike - Court Registrar

Dapo Falade, Ado-Ekiti - 03.11.2009

GOVERNOR Segun Oni of Ekiti State and the state chapter of the Action Congress (AC) are trading words over the decision of judiciary workers to join the nationwide strike called by the Judicial Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN), over alleged failure of the government to implement the Consolidated Judicial Salary Structure (CONJUSS).

AC spokesman, Mr. Yemi Adaramodu, had, in a release made available to newsmen in Ado-Ekiti, on Monday, alleged that Oni was the brain behind the enforcement of the strike in Ekiti, so as to prolong the sittings of the state election petitions tribunal.

However, the governor, reacting to the allegation, berated the AC leadership for insinuating that he sponsored the strike, adding that he was not, in any way, connected with the decision of a union to embark on a strike.

Meanwhile, the registrar of the state judiciary, Mr. Segun Ogunyemi, has absolved the state government of any complicity in the strike, as he said the judiciary workers in the state were only complying with the order of the national body of the union.

The Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Mr. Wale Ojo-Lanre, in a statement issued in Ado Ekiti, said “the allegation has further reinforced our belief that the case of the so-called activists in the AC has graduated from hallucination to mental paralysis, because only a demented mind would claim that a nationwide strike by a union was sponsored by a governor in one out of the 36 states in the country.”

But Adaramodu had alleged that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)-led government in the state had, in conjunction with the court registrar, coerced judiciary workers in the state to declare what he described as “an authorised strike.”

While denying the allegation, the court registrar said that the strike was national, adding that the state judiciary workers could not be an exemption to a directive issued by the national union on issues affecting its members nationwide.