An Okene High Court in Kogi State, Thursday, issued a bench warrant for the arrest of the state's Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice; the Head of Service, HOS, and the Accountant-General.
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Justice Sunday Otu, who issued the bench warrant in Okene, said the three senior government functionaries had persistently ignored the court's summons to appear before it.
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He said the HOS, Mr Moses Atakpa; the Attorney General, Mr Joe Abrahams and the Accountant General, Mr Paul Audu, refused to implement the court's judgment ordering the re-absorption of 346 state civil servants sacked illegally in 2009.
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The News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, reports that the court had on May 14, 2012, in its judgment, ordered the State Government to reinstate the sacked workers with immediate effect.
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The court stated that the workers were illegally sacked in 2009 during the Sally Titbot screening exercise.
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It held that the affected workers had genuine documents of employment and were legally employed by the state government.
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Otu held that there was no time the state government gave the affected staff official letters of termination to indicate their disengagement from service.
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He, therefore,ordered their reinstatement and payment of all arrears of salaries and allowances.
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Otu noted that the government in defiance of the court order, applied for stay of execution seven months after (December, 2012) the judgement. He said the application was denied by the court but yet, government still refused to reinstate them.
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Otu said that the counsel to the appellants, Mr John Barry, had approached the court and intimated it that though the affected staff reported for duty and some were promoted and transferred to other stations. He said that despite that, the state government still refused to pay their salaries and allowances.