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Unpaid salaries: SERAP petitions 11 state govs for criminality
At least, 11 state governors have been petitioned before the International Criminal Court over their refusal to pay workers’ salaries, by Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP).
The 11 governors and their states are, Rauf Aregbesola, Osun; Ayodele Fayose, Ekiti; Olusegun Mimiko, Ondo; Abdulfatah Ahmed, Kwara; Abiola Ajimobi, Oyo and Nyesom Wike, Rivers.
The rest are, Samuel Ortom, Benue; Mohammed Abubakar, Bauchi; Seriake Dickson, Bayelsa; Simon Lalong, Plateau and Yahaya Bello, Kogi.
The rights advocacy group, disclosed this in a statement on Thursday, signed by its Executive Director, Adetokunbo Mumuni.
It said it had written to the prosecutor of the ICC, Mrs. Fatou Bensouda, to probe and prosecute the 11 governors for supposed crime against humanity.
According to the group, the refusal of these governors to pay salaries of workers in their various states have brought inexpressible hardship on the lives of millions of Nigerians, giving room for severe deprivation, mental and physical health issues among the workers and their dependants.
Read also: Unpaid salaries: Resign now or risk bloodshed, militants threaten Gov Dickson
In its petition, the group posited that the governors having breached the provisions of Article 7(1)(k) of the Rome Statute of the ICC, must not go unpunished.
Part of the statement reads, “SERAP believes that the non-payment of salaries of workers amounts to a serious attack on human dignity covered in the definition of ‘other inhumane acts’ under the Rome Statute, and fit within the ICC’s mandate.
“The gravity of non-payment of workers’ salaries for several months should not be dismissed a priori as lesser than that of the radically egregious acts that the ICC has so far prosecuted.”
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