‘Death of justice’: Ondo judiciary workers blast Aiyedatiwa as strike shuts courts statewide

By Johnbosco Agbakwuru

ABUJA — JUDICIARY activities in Ondo State have been completely paralysed as magistrates, presidents of Grade ‘A’ customary courts and members of the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria, JUSUN, embark on an indefinite strike over the alleged state government’s refusal to grant full financial autonomy to the judiciary as required by the Constitution.

The industrial action has shut down courts across all 18 local government areas, with striking workers accusing Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa’s administration of deliberately starving the third arm of government of funds and plunging the state into what they termed a “constitutional crisis.”

JUSUN in a strongly worded statement, alleged that the executive arm has “extinguished the light of the law” in the Sunshine State through the alleged persistent delays in fund releases, reversal of approvals and crippling administrative bottlenecks that have made it impossible for courts to function.

They accused Governor Aiyedatiwa, the Attorney-General, Kayode Ajulo, SAN, and the Commissioner for Finance, Mrs Omowumi Isaac, of allegedly championing policies that undermine the independence and effective operation of the judiciary.

“The Sunshine State is presently in constitutional freefall. In the ‘Sunshine State’, the light of the law has been extinguished. This is an act of institutional vandalism by the Executive branch. By starving the judiciary of its constitutionally mandated financial autonomy, the state government has effectively declared war on its own citizens,” the statement said.

Describing the key officials as an “unholy trinity,” the workers likened Governor Aiyedatiwa to an “emperor” whose “lavish spending on personal interests and indifference to the suffering of the people is reminiscent of Queen Marie Antoinette’s excesses and lack of empathy.”

They portrayed Ajulo as “the General executing his principal’s campaign of strangling the judicial arm of the state,” while Isaac was depicted as “the tip of the spear, used by the executive to dodge responsibilities, rescind approvals, delay files, alter established disbursement protocols and create an illusion of penury by the executive.”

The striking workers warned that the sustained shutdown of the courts is already having grave human and economic consequences. They said hundreds of citizens are now languishing in overcrowded police cells and correctional facilities in Akure and beyond, denied arraignment and bail, while survivors of sexual and gender-based violence and victims of domestic abuse have been left without legal protection.

“Without the shield of a sitting magistrate to issue protection orders, the state has effectively abandoned its most vulnerable to their abusers,” they said.

They further lamented “commercial paralysis” in the state, with contractual enforcement halted and land disputes, real estate transactions, probate matters and debt recoveries frozen, creating “a climate of high-risk uncertainty that repels investment and invites chaos.”

According to them, the prolonged court shutdown is also “impoverishing the bar,” as thousands of legal practitioners who depend on active litigation have seen their livelihoods “evaporate overnight.

”“A state without a functional court is not a democracy; it is a lawless land where might makes right. The executive boot on the neck of the Ondo State judiciary is a clear and present danger to the social contract. Every day the court gates remain padlocked is another day the rule of law is replaced by the rule of the mob,” the statement added.

The workers insisted that the Aiyedatiwa administration must immediately implement full financial autonomy for the judiciary, stressing that the court “is not a political bargaining chip but a prerequisite for the survival of Ondo State.”

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