Kogi State Ministry of Justice worker dies just as strike to end one year salary arrears ends

STAFF at the Kogi State Ministry of Justice are mourning a colleague who slumped and died at her residence on Thursday in a development believed to be linked to the failure of the state government to pay workers for the last year resulting in severe hardship.

Like many of Nigeria's states, Kogi owes its workers a backlog of salary arrears and in the case of the ministry of justice staff, they are believed to be owed about 12 months salaries. Over the last five months, the civil servants have been out on strike protesting the development and only resumed work last week.

Just as they resumed their duties Fatimah Noah, who works with the Magistrate Court II, Lokoja, slumped and died. Mrs Noah, a widow, popularly known as Mama Danladi by her colleagues, slumped and died around 8pm on Thursday in her residence in Lokoja, although the cause of her illness is yet to be ascertained.

One eyewitness said Mrs Noah resumed work on Monday with her colleagues after the National Judicial Council (NJC) resolved the trade disputes between the judiciary and Kogi State Government and she started work with no medical complaints. According to one of her colleagues, Mama Danladi was seen on duty on Thursday without betraying any emotion of a sickness or any form of discomfort until she closed and left for home.

“Mama Danladi who had not taken salaries for the past one year and a widow with children in tertiary institutions, was said to have scouted for just N20,000 three days ago to address pressing need of one of her sons in the school without success”, the source said.

According to the source, the non-payment of salaries by the government since the resumption of work following the strike is causing uneasiness among the concerned workers. Following her death, the remains of late Mama Danladi, who was born on November 18, 1973, have been taken to Idah, her country home and buried according to Islamic rites.