JUSUN reprimands Lagos chapter over partial resumption

The Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN) says it will re-seal all courts in Lagos following information that the state chapter has partially resumed activities.

Shobowale Kehinde, JUSUN Lagos chairman, had, on April 22, said some of its workers in the state will be allowed to resume to enable the courts to clear backlogs of important cases.

Kehinde said the decision was based on the fact that the Lagos state government has shown interest in addressing JUSUN’s demands.

He, however, noted that work and official duties will be limited to Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of every week.

However, Jimoh Musa, JUSUN national treasurer, said the partial court reopening translates to going against the union in general.

“Last week, it happened like that. I had to travel to Lagos to make sure that the place was locked up. Surprisingly, today (Wednesday) we were called that the same thing was happening there again,” he said.

“We don’t know what is wrong with that (Lagos) chairman; he doesn’t have the capacity to do that. It is a NEC (national executive committee) decision. He alone cannot sit in Lagos and take that decision.

“Whatever the pressure is, he is supposed to come to the national body. NEC will sit and he will table his issues. If approved, fine.

“But as I’m speaking to you now, we’ve just finished a meeting. We have resolved that Lagos must be shut down if truly it is open today.

“We have delegated some people to go there (Lagos), and all the south-west JUSUN will be against Lagos; that place must be shut down. This is our decision. It must be shut down. If Lagos opens, it will be fighting against the south-west JUSUN, and we are going to lock it back up.”