Normal activities resume in Abuja Courts
Activities resumed on Tuesday at the National Industrial Court of Nigeria (NICN), Abuja and some court in Kano after the suspension of the Judicial Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN) 64-day strike.
The Voice Media Trust (VMT NEWS) reports that the strike, the longest industrial action in the Nigerian judiciary was suspended on June 9, following a meeting between officials of the union and the National Judicial Council (NJC) led by the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Ibrahim Muhammad.
Both parties agreed that the strike should be called off in the interest of the nation and to give room for the implementation of agreements JUSUN reached with the Federal Government.
VMT NEWS reports that the union JUSUN had begun a nationwide strike on Tuesday, April 6, when the union directed all its members across the federation to shut down all courts after the expiration of the 21-day ultimatum earlier given over the failure of the government to implement the law.
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VMT NEWS correspondent who monitored activities reports that the premises of the court on Gimbiya Street, Area 11, Garki, was buzzing with activities as staff members attend to lawyers and litigants.
The court staff however said they were waiting for directives from the judges to start giving dates for cases.
Some lawyers were also seen at the central registry of the court either filing additional or fresh processes.
A staff of the registry, Mr Aminu Ibrahim said ” as you can see the registry is opened and you can see people waiting their turn to file old and fresh processes”.
It was also observed that some staff moved around offices to exchange pleasantries and catch up with colleagues they had not seen for months.
Although there was no physical court sittings slated for Tuesday, however, the court has virtual proceedings for two courts by 10 a.m. and 11 a.m.
VMT NEWS reports that the President, NICN, Justice Benedict Kanyip, has equally issued a practice directions, exempting payment of default fees for filing processes in the court for the period of the JUSUN strike, being from April 6 to June 14.
Kanyip issued the directions in the exercise of the powers conferred on him by Section 254F(1) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 as amended and Section 36 of the NICN (Civil procedure) Rules 2017.
He further directed that the practice directions shall come into effect from Tuesday.
Normal activities resume in Abuja Courts
