Kogi State High Court sitting in Okene, last week, threatened to use its constitutional powers to bring the full weight of law on the state head of service, Accountant-General and the Attorney-General.
This was sequel to their disobedience to the ruling which ordered them to reinstate 346 civil servants illegally sacked in the state.
The court had delivered a judgment on May 14, 2012 and ordered that the state government should immediately re-absorb 346 civil servants who were sacked in 2009 by the Sally Tibot screening exercise.
The court, in the judgment, had declared that affected staff had genuine documents of employment and were legally employed by the state government, while it consequently ordered their reinstatement with salaries and allowances paid.
It was gathered that the affected members of staff were still reporting for their official duties, while some of them had been promoted with some transferred to other stations, yet they were not receiving salaries for over three years.
The trial judge, Justice S. O. Otu, who expressed his anger when an order earlier issued by the court for the government’s officials to appear before it was flouted, said the magnanimous disposition of the court to the trio over this matter should not be seen as portraying the court to be weak, stressing that the court would accede to the plea of the defence counsel for the last time.
The defence counsel had earlier pleaded with the court to give his clients one more opportunity of which he would personally ensure that the three of them were physically present in the court.
Justice Otu, therefore, adjourned the case till March 1.
