The Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) says its members have commenced an indefinite industrial action.
ASUP President, Anderson Ezeibe, announced this at a press briefing in Abuja on Tuesday morning.
He said all members of the union have agreed to shut all the Nigerian Polytechnics until their demands are met.
This is coming just as members of the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN) on Tuesday in Abuja, locked out staff members, lawyers, litigants and members of the public from the Federal High Court complex in Maitama, Abuja.
JUSUN President, Marwan Adamu, said in a statement that all courts and other departments would be shut till the government does the needful, noting the industrial action was to press home their demand for financial autonomy of the judiciary.
Members of the union said in front of the court entrance, saying, “we are on strike”. The protesting judicial workers were seen at the court premises as early as 6.30am on Tuesday morning to ensure that no one entered the court premises, using a big padlock to lock the entrance gate.
Litigants were turned away while security personnel attached to the court were seen loitering around.
President Muhammadu Buhari had on May 22, 2020, signed into law an Executive Order granting financial autonomy to the legislature and the judiciary across the 36 states of the federation. The Executive Order No. 10 of 2020, made it mandatory for all states to include the allocations of both the legislature and the judiciary in the first-line charge of their budgets.
The order also mandates the accountant-general of the federation to deduct from source amount due to the state legislatures and judiciaries from the monthly allocation to each state, for states that refuse to grant such autonomy.
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