The Osun State Government has requested that an Ibadan-based lawyer, Mr. Mutalubi Adebayo, SAN, refrain from “interloping activism” and drop his threat to sue Governor Ademola Adeleke and the administration over unpaid judge allowances in the state.
Adebayo gave Adeleke a 10-day deadline on Thursday to make payments for arrears on allowances owed to retired and active judges in the state or risk legal action.
Adebayo stated that if Adeleke did not accede to the request by September 30 legal action to compel him to pay up would start on October 3 in a court with the necessary jurisdiction. The statement was dated Thursday, September 21, and was personally signed by him. It was obtained by our correspondent in Osogbo.
The attorney, who in a message to our correspondent confirmed that he was the author of the statement, also stated that in addition to the arrears of unpaid entitlements, he would also seek interest and increased damages.
“This serves as a notice to the Governor, the Government, and the Judicial Service Commission of Osun State of Nigeria that if all the arrears of allowances being owed to all the Judicial Officers in the state (both serving and retired) from the tenure of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola until date, are not liquidated on or before the 30th day of September, 2023, I, JCI Senator Mutalubi Ojo Adebayo, SAN.
“TAKE further notice that, I will also claim interest and aggravated damages in respect of those unpaid allowances because the acts of the Government of Osun State in refusing to pay same over the years amount to sheer callousness, recklessness, disregard for rule of law, indecent and unfair. “
However, in response, the government claimed that Adebayo’s actions were not only “meddlesomeness, but misrepresentation and misinterpretation of employment relationship between employees and the employer” in a statement by the governor’s spokesperson, Olawale Rasheed.
The state government reminded the public that the lawyer had confirmed that the allowances were owed by the Aregbesola/Oyetola administrations, even though it would not immediately link Adebayo’s threat of legal action to the politicization of service issues.
Part of the statement read, “We can add for him that the 100 billion naira worth of salary, pension, and employment-related debt that the Adeleke administration inherited from the two previous APC governments. This is in addition to the 400 billion naira worth of additional state debt. Despite a cash crunch and equally competing demands for state spending, the Adeleke administration has nevertheless started paying off such salary and pension debt.
“We are forced to advise the lawyer to stay away from disruptive and intrusive activism. He should take another honorable path rather than assuming control over a labor dispute, which is a matter for the unions and their employers to resolve. This is because we do not believe he has been politically recruited.
“Given that we’re going to assume the attorney is well-intentioned, he can turn his threat into an appeal to the State Governor to continue his ongoing phased payment of unpaid debts inherited from previous administrations. He may also congratulate the Governor for taking action on behalf of all Osun citizens by coming up with plans to finish abandoned projects and make gradual payments of debt. “.
