Real Reasons We Protested Against CJ – Osun JUSUN Members
The Judiciary Staff Union in Osun State have accused the suspended Chief Judge, Justice Oyebola Adepele-Ojo of abuse of office and poor treatment of its members.
The workers who were led by Mr. Oluwagbenga Eludire, had staged a protest in the early hours of Monday, blocking the entrance to the Osun State High Court in Osogbo and brandishing placards with inscriptions such as: ‘We are tired of Oppression and Stagnation,’ and ‘Unlawful Suspension of Judiciary Staff Without Recourse to Judicial Service Commission is Barbaric,’ Judiciary Staffs in Osun State are not Slaves among others.
Speaking to Osun Defender, Eludire alleged deliberate suspension of judicial staffs by the CJ without any recourse to the Judicial Service Commission,a development which he claimed is against the ethics of the commission.
He further said the productivity and operations of the workers have been retarded following the stoppage of the yearly training of members at National Judicial Institute by the Chief Judge.
According to him: “One of the reasons why we are here today to protest against the CJ is that Some of our members have been suspended for more than three years running to about 59 months now, why should that be? Even without any recourse to the judicial service commission ordinarily the rule says for any senior officer to be sanction or to be punished, such officer must pass through an investigation under the investigation of the judicial service commission but in our own case, it was a unilateral decision of the CJ and it is against the ethics of our job and it is even against the employer and employee bargaining system.
“Many of these people were arraigned before Chief magistrate court and they were vindicated but I must tell you even after that the CJ insisted that her will must be done and we don’t know to what extent. We must understand that these people have been passing through hell for long period. They have families to take care of, they have wives and children.
“For how long are we going to fold our hands looking on these people suffering. And that is why we are solidarising with them. More so many of them have even died because we realised that about 10 of them were summarily dismissed without a recourse to the Judicial Service Commission.
“We have consulted and we have even approach our CJ on several occasions to plead on behalf of our members because it is our duty to safeguard and to protect the interest of all our members. They are all financial members and we must have their interest. And we have done this on several occasions discussing with our CJ but it appeared she is not ready to recognize or even reckon with what we are demanding from her.
“Beside that, we realised there are some other benefits that were to be accorded to judiciary workers but up till now we have not seen anything. For example, we are entitled to be paid wardrobe allowances. But i must tell you the wardrobe allowances for the year 2021/2022/2023 we have not received any for once and government has done it own part by releasing some funds to mitigate this in the budget on yearly basis. And this is part of the question we have been asking from the CJ why should it be.
“More so, it is our conventional practice that on yearly basis some categories of workers in the judiciary will be sent on training to enhance efficiency and effectiveness at National Judicial Institute but since 2015 this has stopped and this has retarded the operations of judiciary workers and we are asking our CJ why should it be when our counterparts in other states are enjoying these privilege, why should it be?
“On why the protest coincides with the time CJ and the state government have issues, Eludire claimed he was unaware of the situation saying there is no inappropriate time for workers to demand their rights.”
Hafsoh Isiaq is a graduate of Linguistics. An avid writer committed to creative, high-quality research and news reportage. She has considerable experience in writing and reporting across a variety of platforms including print and online.
