Some magistrates in the Cross River State Judiciary serving in various magisterial districts across the state have lamented non-payment of salaries and wrongful removal of their names from the government payroll.
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According to information pieced together, mostly affected by the exercise were the magistrates and senior registrars employed by the State Judicial Service Commission in February 2019. They are reportedly not being paid since September 2019.
The report has it that “On February 1, 2019, a total of 46 new magistrates were duly appointed and sworn into office by the then chief judge of Cross River State, Hon. Justice Michael Edem, who had since retired.
“The appointment followed due process involving thorough screening, interview, and necessary documentation exercises conducted by the State Judicial Service Commission is the body statutorily empowered to employ and exercise disciplinary control over judicial officers of the magistracy cadre in Cross River State.
“Since then, all the magistrates have undergone necessary professional training including a two months attachment to courts and a mandatory induction course at the National Judicial Institute (NJI), Abuja. Also, the magistrates have since been posted/assigned to various magistrates’ courts across the state where they are still working and discharging their responsibilities till date, yet none of them has been paid.
“It is important to note though parenthetically that the JSC is created under Section 202 of the 1999 Constitution and also its independence is statutorily guaranteed. Therefore, in exercising its power to appoint magistrates and exercise disciplinary control over them, the JSC is not subject to control by any other authority or person including the governor. Regarding Section 9 of the Judicial Service Commission Law, Cap J2 Vol.3 Laws of Cross River State of Nigeria 2004.
“Another twist is that out of the total of 46 new magistrates, only about 30 are fresh appointments, the rest were already civil servants whose names were already on the payroll but merely transferred their services to the Judiciary as magistrates. (It was however gathered that this is very much allowed and has always been done in the past and is not the first time.)
“In April 2020, the State Judicial Service Commission in a bid to pander to the yearning of the state government conducted a screening exercise where they attempted to reduce the number of the new magistrates to 19 and further recommended the return of all those on transfer to the various MDAs where they came from. Yet the governor has refused to pay even one person till date,” they lamented.
The source alleged that the governor in September 2019 acting on the advice of his special adviser on payroll, John Odey, illegally, unjustifiably and unceremoniously removed the names of over 2,000 civil servants from the government payroll.
Odey was reportedly quoted as saying that the removal was to enable the governor to authenticate the process of employment of the affected staff and restore only those who were genuinely employed. The governor has refused to call for the so-called verification exercise to date.
“Those removed from the payroll include about 40 law officers (state council) from the Ministry of Justice and some of the magistrates appointed under the category of transfer of service. Note that these are staff who were properly employed in 2016, issued with letters of appointments and after two years of satisfactory and meritorious service they were further issued with letters of confirmation of appointments, only for their salaries to be stopped unceremoniously without any established case of misconduct, neither are they issued with disengagement letters”.
Meanwhile, it was learnt that “A group of six magistrates among those whose names were removed from the payroll have since filed a case at the National Industrial Court of Nigeria, Calabar Division, in Suit No. NICN/CA/46/2019 where they are challenging the wrongful and illegal removal of their names from the payroll of government.
“Also, about 33 law officers from the Ministry of Justice are also in court challenging the wrongful removal of their names from the payroll.”
