Nigerian govt hopeful Courts, State Assemblies will re-open next week

The Federal Government has expressed optimism that courts and state assemblies would re-open next week, following the resolution it reached with the striking workers in the sectors.

This was contained in a statement issued by the Minister of Labour and Employment, Sen. Chris Ngige, who stated this while addressing journalists at the end of a closed-door meeting between the government and workers’ unions on Friday in Abuja.

The meeting was called to smoothen the grey areas in the Memorandum of Action (MoA) reached on May 20.

Ripples Nigeria had reported that the Judicial Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN) and Parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria (PASAN) had embarked on a nationwide strike on April 6.

The strike began after the expiration of the 21-day ultimatum earlier given, over the failure of the government to implement the law recognising financial autonomy for the judiciary and the legislature.

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The minister said, “So, today we met with the unions in a small dialogue to dot the i’s and cross the t’s in the agreement which we agreed on May 20.

“Right now, we expect the unions to go back to their members and give them a final briefing on what we have achieved today.

“And with this achievement of today, we are hopeful that by next week, the chambers of our courts and the doors of the state assemblies will be open for business activities,” he said.

Ngige said they were not oblivious that this situation has posed serious challenges to the nation, especially as the courts were closed and the law enforcement agencies have no place to take arrested criminals.

He, therefore, commended the unions for the efforts put in place in the final round of the dialogue where modalities that were not very clear have been sorted to the satisfaction of both sides.

By Mayowa Oladeji…

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