The indefinite strike of the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN) continues on Thursday without any hope of being called off even as the Chief Justice of Nigeria(CJN), Justice Ibrahim Tanko Muhammad ruled out appealing to state governors to obey President Muhammadu Buhari’s Executive Order No 10, and other substantive judicial pronouncements on fiscal independence of the judiciary as it would amount to begging them for favours.
Justice Muhammed said this on Tuesday during his meting with some national and local officials of the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria(JUSUN) over the ongoing strike.
The meeting which took place in his Chamber at the Supreme Court, was aimed at exploring solutions and ways to mitigate impact of the strike action in the Judiciary.
A statement by Malam Ahuraka Isah, Special Assistant to the CJN on media and publicity strategy indicated that the meeting lasted some minutes.
The CJN however at the end asked the JUSUN to call off the strike while the process of making state governments to obey Order 10 and various court judgments on the autonomy of the Judiciary are being implemented.
He then added: “Ordinarily, I would have said let me talk to individual 36 state governors, which amounts to asking for their favours. But some of them would ask me to do ten favours in return. This is why as a judge I am prohibited from asking for favour.”
The National Treasurer of JUSUN, Mr Jimoh Musa who led the delegation on behalf of the JUSUN President, Marwan Adamu said out of 19 members of the NEC, only three of them were present.
Their president, Musa said had an accident on his way to attend the meeting with CJN.
“We have to table the CJN’s fatherly advice before our NEC meeting and consequently get back to his lordship,” Musa said.