Create pension boards for judiciary, JUSUN tells FG, states

The Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN), has called on both the federal and state governments to urgently create a pension board to handle issues relating to pension for judiciary staff.
President of JUSUN, Comrade Marwan Mustapha in an interview in Abuja, said retired judicial staff were going through untold hardship as a result of difficulties accessing their pension.
He said the National Delegates Conference (NDC) which is the highest decision making body of the union, in 2016 directed the union to vigorously pursue this in collaboration with other stakeholders in the country.
Mustapha also recalled that the NDC further requested the various tiers of government (federal and states) to, with urgency, put in place machinery for the creation of pension board for the judiciary.
According to him, JUSUN planned to make a presentation at the public hearing at the National Assembly, scheduled for Monday 19th February 2018 on this issue.
Comrade Marwan further said judicial reform cannot be complete without a pension board for retired judicial staff.
He said a case at hand was that of about six judges in Bauchi who retired years back but can’t access their pension, a situation that led to the demise of one of them.
“The position of the union is that, we are passionate and committed to this struggle because the situation is alarming, because judiciary has been relegated to become something else.
“The issue of the financial autonomy of judiciary has not been resolved. We are also worried about the issue of pension, because as at today, in both the federal and state judiciary, our members who retired from service are undergoing difficult situation as most of them can’t have access to their pension.
“I keep asking that since we are employed by Judicial Service Commission (JSC), our administrative activities that is discipline, promotion and retirement are conducted by the same body and after retirement we are referred to the Head of service for processing of our retirement benefits.
“This is a wrong procedure considering the provision of the constitution. That is why we are asking for a total overhauling, because if you are talking about judicial reforms, there is no way you will leave the issue of pension.
“So what we are asking is that the issue of pension for judicial staff be handled by the judiciary, so Judicial Pension Board is required at this junction.
“The executive arm of government like the Police, Customs, Immigration and Military are all having pension board. Also in the state, local government workers have their own pension board. But for judiciary as an independent arm of government, we see no reason why we can’t have a pension board so as to give easy access in terms of pension for the retired staff”.