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JUSUN STRIKE: Northern governors back financial autonomy, reject Buhari’s order

Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau State has on Tuesday said state governors in the country holds not grudges against the financial autonomy that members of the Judiciary worker are agitating for.

The Governer made this statement in an interview with the Nigeria Governor’s Forum Press corps in Abuja and however, he faulted the Executive Order 10, signed into law last year by President Buhari.

The Plateau State governor who also doubles as the Chairman of the Northern Governors’ Forum said that the Federal Government does not have the legitimacy to force states to implement financial autonomy for the Legislative and judiciary.

Lalong added that there are measures to be taken before the autonomy could be granted and that state governors would meet the leadership of judiciary Staff Union on Wednesday (today) with a view to ending the strike and find lasting solutions to the lingering issue.

Recall that Judicial workers had on Tuesday last week embarked on an under nationwide strike in protest against the denial of this arm it’s consitutionally guaranteed financial autonomy which was also affirmed by a Federal High Court in January 2014.

Further responding to questions on the public outcry over the ongoing strike by JUSUN with allegations that it was caused by the state Governors and the non-implementation of Executive Order 10,  Lalong said, “The court did not make any pronouncement on Order 10. The court said there is a law on financial autonomy, so Order 10 and financial autonomy are different. Order 10 is not a  law.  Financial autonomy is a  law.

“People don’t understand what Order 10 is. Order 10 is talking about implementation. But for us governors, we are saying no.  We are going to do implementation. We don’t need any Order 10 to force us to do implementation. So, we don’t need Order 10. We are only working on the law of implementation because Federal Government cannot tell us how to implement.

“We are doing the implementation. So for the judiciary, I’ve explained.  I have said it’s perhaps people don’t understand.  People have not even read what is Order 10 and the difference between Order 10 and the financial autonomy. We will have a meeting tomorrow. It is (the meeting)  about financial autonomy.

“It’s not about Order 10. Order 10 of course is sub-judice now. It’s in court. We are not bothered about Order 10. We are talking about the implementation of the financial autonomy law.

“I was a speaker.  We started it in 1999. Today I’m a governor, and I knew how the governors agreed, and brought in financial autonomy. It was a law, agreed by the governors.

“So who is the one that is even crying more than the bereaved? All these things affect us. And, of course, talking today, I’m a lawyer and I would want the judiciary to be autonomous.

“I’ve been a legislator. I was a speaker and chairman of speakers’ conference, so I will say that I will want autonomy for them.

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