The National Industrial Court has ordered an immediate upward review of judges’ salaries.
An Abuja court ruled that the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) should be paid a minimum monthly salary of N10 million and each justice of the Supreme Court, N9 million.
Delivering judgment, Justice Osatohanmwen Obaseki-Osaghae, directed the relevant agencies to comply with the directive of the court to ensure immediate compliance with its order.
These agencies are the National Assembly (NASS), the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission ( RMAFC), the Attorney-General of the Federation & Minister of Justice ( AGF), and the National Judicial Commission ( NJC).
The court held that by the combined interpretation of the provision of section 4 (1) (2) of the 1999 constitution as amended and the first schedule of 6 (1b) of the RMAFC Act 2004, the first and second defendants did not have the power to neglect, by failing or perform their constitutional and statutory duties of reviewing judges’ salaries since 2008.
Obaseki-Osaghae further declared the act unconstitutional and said that the current salaries of judges were embarrassingly too low given the present socio-economic realities and other factors such as the value of the naira against the currencies of some countries.
She further made an order of mandatory injunction compelling all the defendants to forthwith, put in place or activate legal and administrative machinery to begin payment to the justices.
