Nasarawa JUSUN Decries High Level Of Corruption/Unnecessary Deduction In Staff Salary

Rabiu Omaku

Nasarawa State chapter of the Judicial Staff Union of Nigeria has accused the Head of courts over unnecessary deduction of staff salaries; the Union described the ongoing and unabated situation as a high level of corruption in Nasarawa Judiciary.

Chairman of the Union disclosed this during a congress meeting/May Day briefing held at JUSUN secretariat along Kwandere road.

A member during the congress raised eyebrow over the deduction of N22, 000 monthly from their monthly wage, Zanwa a staff of the Union as said.

The Union resolved to struggle to ensure that the unlawful deduction of salary which commences since October 2016 to date is been reverse for the interest of government/workers relationship.

Jimoh in an interview listed some of the demands of JUSUN to include Issues of promotions, arbitrary deduction of salaries, calling on the head of courts to do the needful.

“The Chief Judge, Justice Suleiman Dikko set up an ad-hoc committee which are saddle with the responsible to promote, discipline, transfer a staff  ,in fact the committee are not doing the right job”,

“The committee lacks direction because a staff on level 12 today and by next week the committee would decide and reverts the promotion”.

Jimoh called on the head of courts to have a rethink by refunding all monies deducted since October, 2016 to date.

The Chief Judge of Nasarawa State, Justice Suleiman Umar Dikko on his part while reacting on the allegations raised by Judicial Staff Union of Nigeria debunked the statement as an outright fallacy.

The Chief Judge who doubles as the chairman Judicial Service Commission maintained that the Judiciary set up committees to put wrong right as well to instill sanity in the system.

He in addition said nothing like unnecessary and unlawful deduction of salaries by the management rather said the aimed of salaries the committees was to verify and place every staff in the right place.

“We set up an ad-hoc to authenticate whether an officer is under or over paid and we did that by screening first appointment letter and last promotion”, he added.

“Mostly those that were over paid a year after nobody said they should make refund but we are trying to put the record straight”.

“Those affected in this process are either those that sat for promotion examination and

1. People that score 40% in interview automatically failed the promotion exams or people whose salaries were deducted.
2. Those that did not present the original of their certificate are also affected,

So also staff that failed to presents their Annual Performance Evaluation Report (APER)

3. Staff that was absent during interview but were issued a promotion are those seriously affected in the process.

“49 staff was downgraded to their normal position

19 failed to present their APER while 7 staff scores above 40% but letter of promotion was not given to them, adding that the motive behind the exercise was to ensure proper placement of staff.

The Chief Judge blamed the Union for forfeiting promotion to increments.