slash in the salaries of magistrates in Imo State which led to the
boycott of the mobile court by magistrates during the monthly
sanitation exercise last Saturday.
Speaking during a media interaction with a select crop of journalists
in the Government House, Owerri, the governor regretted that the
judiciary which he had pampered over the years has failed to come to
terms with prevailing economic realities in the country.
Said he: "In Nigeria, it is only in Imo State that you start out
magistrates with N500,000 per month. Akwa Ibom, with all their jumbo
allocations start magistrates with N150,000; Anambra is N170,000 while
Abia is about N150,000. Nowhere in Nigeria except Imo State are
magistrates started out with N500,000. In fact, in the Imo judiciary,
level 9 workers go home with N390, 000 while their colleagues in other
ministries get only 59,000 monthly. So I offered to pay the
magistrates N200,000 and they rejected it.
The governor noted that a committee has been set up to negotiate with
the judiciary and also stressed that due to the poor allocation to the
state he has resolved to cut wastages and negotiate salaries where
necessary.
He informed that the state government is effectively embarking on what
he called, 'salary adjustment programme'.
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