COURT activities were paralysed nationwide yesterday as judicial workers under the aegis of Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN) resumed their strike. It is meant to be indefinite.
Among the major cases stalled as a result of the strike is the petition filed by former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and former Head of State, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) against the declaration of Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar'Adua of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as winner of the 2007 presidential election.
Also stalled was the hearing on the bail for former Delta State Governor James Onanefe Ibori who is standing trial for money laundering.
The tribunal had fixed yesterday for all parties in the presidential case to the petition to adopt their written brief with regard to the petition filed by Atiku of the Action Congress (AC) and Buhari of the All Nigeria Peoples Party.
Some of the workers in Abuja who spoke to The Guardian lamented the gulf between the pay packages of Judges and the ordinary judicial staff, whom they referred to as the "engine room of judicial activities" or "the Judges' foot soldiers."
Judicial workers are on strike because of the corrupt, unfair presidential election last summer and because of the large gap in salary between the judge and the judicial workers. The judicial workers are paid about one-seventh of the salary that the judge is paid, but they do the same amount of work. This strike once again demonstrates that many Nigerian citizens do not respect Yar'Adua as president because of the corruption that allowed him to take office. The government is not very legitimate because of this.
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