By; FUNMI ADERINTO, Kaduna
Governor Nasir Ahmad el-Rufai of Kaduna State on Friday, tasked the newly sworn-in Chief Judge and Grand Khadi to work in fairness and dedicate themselves to judiciary service to repose the confidence of the people
At the event which took place at the Council Chamber of Government House, Governor Nasir el-Rufai swore-in Hon. Justice Muhammad Tukur Mu’azu Aliyu as the acting Chief Judge of Kaduna State and Hon. Abdulrahman Umar Abubakar as Grand Kadi.
He said, “we are going to miss the outgoing chief judge as a member and chairman leadership council. Your fairness and dedication is quite commendable, we wish you a very restful retirement”.
However, “the in-coming Chief Judge, Justice Mohammad Tukur is someone that I have known for over fifty years, he is a Barewa old boy, which makes it special. We welcome him to our leadership council. I have very little doubt that the national judicial council formally nominated him for confirmation. We will repeat this in a matter of weeks.
In response to the complaints of the outgoing chief judge, he said, “I have listened very carefully to complaints of chief judge. I regret that the government both at state at the federal levels have been going through fiscal challenges largely because of collapse of oil prices at some point.
“But more recently, the payment of billions of Naira every month for fuel subsidy, this N250 billion comes out of the share of federation account to states, federal and local government areas, which has made some states to be distressed. In fact, Kaduna is one of the better off states as we are able to pay salaries.
“This difficulties have been imposed on us by global and national circumstances”, he said.
On rent allowance, the governor said, “the advice we got from Ministry of Justice is that, you cannot occupy government quarters and collect rents, that’s double.”
el-Rufai quoted 2014 law, “the judiciary claims that our public service cannot have your cake and eat it.”
He explained that, “we provide quarters for high court judges and furnish and renovate the quarters from time-to-time, and you’ll still want to collect rent, this is the reason why we have not privatised the payment of this rent, but with the appeals from the chief judge, we will look at it and do what we can.
*Consequently, regarding the two months salary, he said, “it was the period that the judicial staff union went on strike, closed down the court, the labour laws of Nigeria says no work no pay, we will never pay those two months, you were on strike for two months, you will not be paid.
“We are not going to pay those that don’t work, we will not pay you, we will in fact, involve the public service law to commence disciplinary action against you for abandoning your work, there’s no industrial issues between KASU and Kaduna State Government, we are different entity, no one should know that better than the staff of judiciary, each government should answer his fathers name, those two months we will never, ever pay them because they did not work,” the Governor vowed.
“I want to make it clear to everyone, in Kaduna State Government employ that no work, no pay”. He stressed.
On the running of judiciary, he assured them that, “we will do everything we can to ensure that the judiciary has enough resources to run.
“We will do the best we can, we are not proud of all the judges, but we are proud of most judges,” he stressed.
He congratulated the acting judge on his appointment, adding that he looks forward to working with him in the next thirteen months.
In a brief interview with the acting Chief Judge, Justice Muhammad Tukur after he was sworn-in, he assured the state that he will make sure that the judiciary is works in accordance with the Constitution and the law.
He reassured of abiding by the oath of office he took, adding that, “Justice will prevail without of favour.”
