Abia does not owe judiciary workers – Otti

Abia State Government has denied owing judiciary workers in the State, who are currently on strike over allegation of unpaid salaries.

Governor Alex Otti, stated this at the interdenominational thanksgiving service held in commemoration of the fallen heroes and wreath laying, by the Nigerian Armed Forces, held at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Chapel, Federal Medical Centre, Umuahia, the Abia State Capital.

The governor, who used the opportunity to speak on the ongoing judiciary workers’ strike in the State, said that his attention was brought to the issue, through a newspaper publication.

Read also: Otti begins payment of eight years’ salary arrears of judiciary workers in Abia

He said that his Government did not owe workers, but explained that the leadership of the Judiciary staff refused to come and sit down with the Government to do a review.

“Yesterday, I saw in the newspapers that Nigerian Bar Association was advising me in the newspapers to pay (judiciary workers) and I thought that Nigerian Bar Association should have known better.

“First of all, you should know that, this is a Government that does not owe. So, it is untrue that judiciary workers have not been paid.

“By the time the minimum wage was reviewed upwards, we started engaging with them, just like we did with the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC).

“Interestingly, they refused to come and sit with Government, they sat in the comfort of their offices and did their own review themselves and the matter was getting a bit more serious.

“So, I had to intervene and engaged with the Chief Judge, who intervened and asked them to bring their calculations and when we saw their calculation, we found a lot of errors, which we corrected”, Governor Otti clarified.

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Governor Otti said that he later sat down with the Government team and worked out Judiciary Workers salary on December 24, 2024.

“I worked with the Accountant General, Commissioner for Justice and Commissioner for Finance and we concluded everything about their salary and on December 24, we remitted ₦283,242,318.50 to the judiciary.

“Interestingly, as at this morning, they have refused to pay their workers. Now, Judiciary is an arm of Government that is independent. Our job is to remit the money to their account and their job is to pay their workers.

“I even approved another ₦27 million to make it about ₦300 million, which they should have also received and I approved an additional money for the thirteenth month salary that I paid other people”, Otti explained.