The Nigerian Bar Association has blasted the Cross River State governor, Ben Ayade for the ugly plight of the magistrates in the state who are owed salaries for two years.
The newly employed magistrates took their destiny into their hands by publicly expressing their grievances.
The over 30 magistrates led by Solomon Abuo of Court 15, protested in front of the Governor’s Office from January 4 to 6.
They demanded payment of their salaries, as they could no longer cope with the embarrassing situation.
The leader of the protesting magistrates, Mr. Abuo said: “We borrow and beg to survive. Most of us cannot feed or pay our children’s school fees. The situation is very bad, and all we want is for the government to pay our 24 months of salary.
“I got bank loans and borrowed from people. We have been embarrassed several times. I got a loan to pay for rent, now my rent is due again. I am indebted to Sterling Bank, from where I borrowed money in December 2019 to pay rent. I owe banks and people over N3m.”
The Nigerian Bar Association while faulting the decision of Governor Ayade to withhold the two years salaries of 30 magistrates, threatened to activate its public interest litigation machinery with a view to instituting actions to address the situation.
The President of the NBA, Olumide Apata, said in a statement titled, “Position of the NBA on the recent protest by magistrates in Cross River State.” that the excuses reportedly provided by the Cross River State Government as the basis for the non-payment, “being the fact that the governor of the state did not authorise the employment of the magistrates” is rather unfortunate.
The association said that considering that the constitutional power to appoint the said magistrates was not vested in the governor but in the Cross River State Judicial Service Commission, which duly appointed them, the state had continued to enjoy the services of the magistrates for upward of two years.
Apata said, “The NBA, therefore, expects that now that the unfortunate situation has become an issue of public knowledge, reason will prevail and the Cross State Government will see its way clear to resolve this issue in the interest of the state, the legal profession in Nigeria and the magistrates concerned.
“In the meantime, this situation has reinforced the need for the NBA to activate its public interest litigation machinery to institute actions to address situations like this, if only as a last resort and the NBA will do so imminently. Following the widely publicised protests, the NBA has received several representations from legal practitioners and members of the general public urging the NBA to intervene in the unfortunate situation.
“For this reason, I wish to notify the general public that I have, even prior to my emergence as NBA President, been making efforts to resolve this issue since it was brought to my attention in December, 2019. Since then, I have consistently interfaced with the attorney-general of the state to prevail on him to use his good offices to resolve the imbroglio.
“But beyond dealing with specific cases of this nature across the country, our commitment at the NBA is to ensure that there is financial autonomy for the judiciary and true independence of the judiciary in matters concerning it. While this appears to be a tall order, the NBA will continue to deploy every resource available to it to ensure that this ultimate objective is achieved sooner rather than later.”
