The national body of the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria has dissolved the Osun State leadership of the union and replaced it with a three-man caretaker committee.
The Osun JUSUN, under the leadership of Gbenga Eludire, had since November 22, 2023, declared an indefinite strike, leading to the paralysis of judicial activities in the state.
Eludire directed the Osun court workers to proceed on strike after policemen on November 22 teargassed JUSUN members, who had begun a protest and picketed the state high court in Osogbo, from physically assaulting the Chief Judge of the state, Justice Adepele Ojo, whom they accused of abuse of office and high-handedness.
The protest by the court workers came amid the move by Governor Ademola Adeleke’s government to suspend the Chief Judge and appoint the next most senior high court judge as acting CJ, a move that was rejected by the National Judicial Council.
The national JUSUN had in a statement in November dissociated itself from the strike embarked upon by the Osun chapter, warning that the association would not lend itself as a weapon in the hands of politicians “to settle any perceived or real political scores.”
However, the chairman of Osun JUSUN, Eludire, insisted that the strike would go on regardless of the position of the national body of the union.
Even after the NJC rejected the request by the state government to suspend the Chief Judge, Eludire insisted that the strike would continue until Osun court workers’ demand for better welfare was met.
On Monday, a prominent JUSUN leader in Osun State, who did not want to be named, told our correspondent that the national leadership of the union had sacked the Eludire-led exco.
According to him, the move is to allow for the resolution of the months-long crisis in the Osun State judiciary.