By Yakubu Busari,Jos
Twenty Four Members of Plateau State House of Assembly including the Speaker ,Rt Hon. Titus Alams yesterday disrupted a day sitting and went into hiding from the Nigerian Labour Congress protesters who storm the Assembly complex.
The speaker who ordered security personnel to prevent Labour Union from the entrance gate was said to have disappear on sighting the protesters.
The protesters who were all over the Assembly complex chanting songs “Jang is not a pastor but a money laundry “with placards in difference inscriptions””Governor Jang should pay us our salaries before handing over”. “Implement Minimum wage of to Local Government workers and primary school teachers before you go Jang”, “Plateau state belongs to the People, workers deserve their pay”.
The Nigerian Labour Congress ,National Vice President Comrade Lucy Offiong has threatened to shut down the country Airports if governors refused to comply or upset workers salary before May 29th handing over dateline.
NLC vice President disclosed this yesterday while protesting non payment of workers entitlement of seven months in Plateau state.
The court gave the order on Monday while ruling on two ex-parte applications filed by the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN), which sought to attach the states’ accounts in the banks over their alleged refusal to pay about N1.6billion to comply with the January 13, 2014, judgment delivered by the judge including backlog of civil servants in the country.
The Plateau State NLC, Comrade Jibrin Bancir described the Plateau State House Assembly as rubber stamps members under the Jang administration.
He stated that on accounts of non payment of workers salary we gave PLHA 14 days to upset their salaries or face full demonstration that could paralyze the entire country.
“I don’t know what the house of Assembly members are doing to provide relief to the plight of the civil servants whose children are out of school and cannot afford to feed them”.
Bancir accused the members of PLHA for neglecting the suffering of poor workers and benefiting from dividend of democracy while they enjoy quality representation seeing their children going to private schools while the public are still on strike.
According to him, the members of 7th assembly are a big disgrace to the plateau people under the present regime, we believe that they have all their entitlement paid all but what about our workers who are still without salary for almost 7 months now .
He applauded the judge for ordering the garnishee “to show cause why the order nisi should not be made absolute by the court.”
He noted that ,”Justice Ademola, in the 2014 judgment, affirmed the financial autonomy status granted the judiciary by the constitution and abolished the piecemeal funding of the arm of government by the states’ governments”.
The governors and the attorney-general of both states were listed as the 15th and 16th; 63rd and 64th defendants in the motions.
He recalled that, JUSUN, in Benue and Plateau, who were parties in the main suit, had “bluntly refused to obey the judgment of the court.”
It said the judiciary of both states owed their workers, who are members of the union, “arrears of salary and other funds due to them up to March 2015.”
They stated, in the supporting affidavits, that all efforts made to both states’ governments “to comply with the judgment of this honourable court fell on deaf ears.”
Jibrin Bancir stated that the protest which started at Jos Gwomwalk secretariat was to commensurate with the pain most of them went through in the state.
I see this protest to PLHA complex as a deliberate sabotage to cover up some issues. The PLHA members have invited the state commissioner of finance to appear before them on thursday (yesterday) to explain why salaries are not paid, coincidentally, NLC disrupt them with protest, I dont know where we are heading to. Am confused and felt there is something fishy.