Senate probes non-payment of severance, pensions to judicial officers

By Taiye Odewale
Abuja

The Senate yesterday set machinery in motion towards probing non-payment of severance, gratuity, pensions and arrears of other entitlements to retired state judicial officers by state governments.
To this effect, it has directed its Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters to conduct an investigative hearing on issues surrounding the non-payment of severance emoluments for the retired judges and report back within four weeks.
The upper legislative chamber also mandated the committee to review the laws impeding the harmonisation of the processes and prompt payment of retirement benefits of all judicial officers in the country.
Similarly, it urged the National Judicial Council (NJC) to harmonise the payment of retirement benefits of all judges of superior courts of records in the country as it has done with the salaries and emoluments of retired judicial officers listed in Section 6 of the Constitution.
These resolutions followed a motion, “The plight of retired judges of state High Courts and the need to harmonise the process of paying the retirement benefits of all judges of superior courts of records in Nigeria” by Senator Chukwuka Utazi (PDP, Enugu North).
Utazi recalled that sometimes around December 2016, Hon. Justice Godwin Ononiba, retired Chief Judge of Anambra state, leading other retired judges, sued the state government, the National Industrial Court for non-payment of their severance, gratuities, pensions and arrears of pensions.
Utazi said the suit was “indicative and a reflection of the depressing plight of retired judicial officers, especially judges of the state High Courts in Nigeria.”
According to him, “the constitution deliberately placed the salaries of federal and state judicial officers as a first line charge on the Consolidated Revenue Fund as a way to secure the independence of the judiciary and such are paid by or transmitted through the NJC to the necessary sub-authorities.”
The lawmaker noted that the retirement benefits of federal judicial officers are paid by the NJC, except for a few hiccups, the council has discharged this role quite prompt.
In his remarks, the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, stressed the need to address the plight of retired judicial officers in order to save them from dying out of misery and hopelessness after retirement.
He, therefore, mandated the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters to look into the non-payment of severance, gratuity, pensions and arrears of the judicial officers and report back within four weeks.

 

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