Judges’ welfare: Ibadan attorney threatens legal action against the Osun government

The Osun State Government and the State Judicial Service Commission have been threatened with legal action by Ibadan-based attorney Mutalubi Ojo Adebayo over unpaid allowance arrears owing to all judicial employees in the State.

The state government was given until September 30, 2023, by Adebayo, in a notification signed by him, dated September 21, 2023, and obtained by OBASANJO NEWS24, to pay off all outstanding debts; otherwise, legal action will be taken.

The legal eminence announced that he will seek interest and increased compensation for unpaid allowances, claiming that the state government’s reluctance to pay constituted to a contempt for the law.

“I, JCI Senator Mutalubi Ojo Adebayo, SAN, shall on the third day of October, 2023 commence legal action in a court of competent jurisdiction to recover the full amount of the said unpaid allowances from the Government of Osun State and its Judicial Service Commission,” the statement reads.

“TAKE further notice that, I shall also claim interest and aggravated damages in respect of such unpaid allowances because the acts of the Government of Osun State in refusing to pay same throughout the years amount to simple callousness, recklessness, disdain for rule of law, indecent and unfair.

“This serves as a notice to the Governor, the Government, and the Judicial Service Commission of Osun State of Nigeria that if all the allowance arrears owed to all the judges in the state (both serving and retired) from the tenure of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola until date are not liquidated on or before the 30th day of September 2023,” the notice reads.

In response, the state government said that the lawyer Mutalubi Ojo Adebayo’s threat of legal action was an attempt at meddling and a misreading of the employment relationship in a statement signed by the spokeswoman for Governor Ademola Adeleke, Olawale Rasheed.

Rasheed said that the Aregbesola/Oyetola regime was responsible for the allowances.

He said that the All Progressives Congress’s (APC) two prior administrations left the Adeleke administration with a staggering N100 billion in debt for salaries, pensions, and employment-related obligations, on top of the N400 billion in state debt.

Even if we don’t want to blame the threat of legal action on the politicisation of service issues, we must remind the public that the lawyer explicitly stated that the Aregbesola/Oyetola administration was responsible for the allowances. We might also mention for him that the 100 billion naira in staggering wage, pension, and employment-related debt that the Adeleke administration inherited from the two previous APC governments. This is in addition to another 400 billion naira in public debt.

“Despite a liquidity shortage and equally conflicting demands for public spending, the Adeleke administration has started paying these salary and pension debts. The general public is aware that Governor Ademola Adeleke has used creative resource management techniques and strategic creativity to run the state, meeting a variety of sectors goals while also looking out for the welfare of employees.

It is known that the Adeleke administration ensures wage payment when due and is striving to settle the debt it inherited from past administrations relating to employment. Why the Ibadan lawyer did not file a lawsuit against those who caused the mess when they were in government is a question that many people have. Even more shocking is the fact that the accused barrister chose to criticise a governor who is making every effort to undo the basic mistakes of the previous 12 years and put the state on the path of sustainable growth.

“We must also state that the judicial staff in Osun are represented by unions, and it is undeniable that the union’s leadership is capable of advancing the interests of its members. The government’s ongoing efforts to address the Unions’ problems in a comprehensive manner as well as the inherited rot are not lost on the Unions.

“We are forced to advise the lawyer to stay away from disruptive and intrusive activism. He should seek another dignified path rather than assuming control over labour conflict issues, which are the exclusive domain of the unions and their employers, as we believe he is not politically motivated.