24 months arrears: Magistrates shelve daily protests

From: Ani Bassey, Calabar

About 30 magistrates who have been pretesting the non payment of their salaries for the past two years have shelved the protests.

This follows the intervention of the Cross River State government through the office of the State’s Attorney General, Tanko Ashang.

Spokesperson of the Magistrates Solomon Abuo said though the message ended in a deadlock, they have decided to give the government time to address their demands.

“Following our meeting yesterday with the Cross River State government, chaired by the Attorney General & Commissioner for Justice, even though the meeting ended in a deadlock but, after a closed door meeting with the AG where we were assured that the government would look into our demands with a view to resolving them by the end of this month, we have decided to suspend our protest for the payment of our 24 months salaries until January salaries are paid.

“This to enable our state government to fashion out modalities & do everything necessary on their part to ensure that our salaries are paid.

“It should be noted that the suspension of our protest is a further show of good faith by us to give our state government the benefit of doubt to resolve this issue amicably by paying us our salaries failing which, we shall resume our protest in earnest”, Magistrate Abuo said.