Lagos police move to decongest cells as JUSUN strike continues

As the industrial action by the Judicial Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN) persists, the Lagos State Police Command has said it has devised a means to decongest cells and holding areas.

The Police spokesman in the state, CSP Olumuyiwa Adejobi, made this known in a chat with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday.

According to Adejobi, the decongestion was carried out in collaboration with the office of the Chief Judge and Attorney-General of the state.

It would be recalled that the JUSUN directed its members to shut down all courts across the country on April 6, 2021, demanding the implementation of law granting financial autonomy to the Judiciary.

Adejobi said, ”The command had been managing the situation in collaboration with the office of the state chief judge.”

“We work with the office of the CJ and Attorney-General of Lagos State to decongest our cells.

“The CJ has provided the services of some Magistrates and District Prosecutors to assess case files and grant bail to some suspects.

“So, we are collaborating with them in this regard,’’ Adejobi said.

He, however, did not give the number of suspects that had been granted bail.

It would also be recalled that on May 23, President Muhammadu Buhari signed into law the Executive Order to grant financial autonomy to the legislature and the judiciary across the 36 states of the country.

The order, according to the publication, mandates the Accountant-General of the Federation to deduct from source amount due to state legislatures and judiciaries from the monthly allocation to each state for states that refuse to grant such autonomy.

The Attorney General of the Federation Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, said Executive Order No. 10 of 2020 made it mandatory that all states of the federation should include the allocations of both the legislature and the judiciary in the first-line charge of their budgets.

“A Presidential Implementation Committee was constituted to fashion out strategies and modalities for the implementation of financial autonomy for the State Legislature and State Judiciary in compliance with section 121(3) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as Amended),” Malami had said.

Similarly, the Nigeria Governors Forum said it will start implementing financial autonomy for the judiciary from May 2021.

Despite these developments, the JUSUN strike has lingered on.