Magistrates in Cross River on Monday blocked the entrance to the governor\u2019s office in Calabar to protest 24 months unpaid salaries.
The magistrates assembled at the governor\u2019s office from the 18 local government areas of the state.
They wielded placards with inscriptions like \u201cwe have right to employment\u2019\u2019, \u201cMagistrates in Cross River are thrown out of their rented apartments\u2019\u2019, \u201cAyade, pay us.\u2019\u2019
Speaking on behalf of the group, Mr Solomon Abuo, Chief Magistrate to the government of Cross River said the protest was their last resort.
Abuo said they had continued to discharge their duties to the state government to date in spite of non-payment of their salaries.
\u201cWe have courts that we are heading and we have been working for the state government to bring about peace and tranquillity to the society.
\u201cYet the governor does not dim it fit to pay us our salaries in spite of our entreaties, pleas, letters, correspondences, screening after screening.
\u201cAfter our employment and swearing in,\u00a0we went through four screenings; in each of them, the governor will ignore the report requesting him to pay us our salaries, so this is our last resort.
\u201cRight now, we have 30 magistrates affected across the 18 local government areas of the state; funny enough, the governor\u2019s local government has the highest number and the state does not care.
\u201cIs it wrong for one to serve the state as judicial officers? Are we supposed to go through this kind of humiliation? Those are the questions to which we want answers.
\u201cWe are all family men with children in schools; we cannot pay children\u2019s school fees.
\u201cLast year one of the magistrates was arraigned before a fellow magistrate for inability to pay house rent. Most of us can\u2019t pay our house rents; we are squatting with colleagues and all that.
\u201cOur prayer is that our 24 months\u2019 salary be paid with immediate effect, otherwise we will continue this protest and stop sittings in courts until we are paid,\u2019\u2019 he said.
Speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Justice Eyo Effiom-Ita,\u00a0Acting Chief Judge, said he was aware of the situation of the magistrates in Cross River State but did not know for how many months the magistrates had not been paid.
\u201cI was appointed Acting Chief Judge two and a half months ago and I heard that some magistrates were appointed, but the governor said he did not give clearance for their appointments and would not pay them.
\u201cUntil Gov. Ben Ayade changes his disposition, there is nothing anybody can do.
\u201cOtherwise, all representations have been made, but the governor is holding firm that he never approved their employment,\u2019\u2019 Justice Effiom-Ita said. <\/p>\n\n\n
\u25aa\ufe0e By NAN<\/strong> Magistrates in Cross River on Monday blocked the entrance to the governor\u2019s office in Calabar to protest 24 months unpaid salaries. The magistrates assembled at the governor\u2019s office from the 18 local government areas of the state. They wielded placards with inscriptions like \u201cwe have right to employment\u2019\u2019, \u201cMagistrates in Cross River are thrown out […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":25681,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[2726,1581,2727],"class_list":["post-30490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-ayoade","tag-cross-river","tag-magistrates"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30490"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30490\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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