Nigeria, June 15 -- Benue State judiciary is not on first-line charge, the workers' union has said, countering a claim by the state's Commissioner for Finance, David Olofu.

Mr Olofu had told our reporter that the state's judiciary was on first-line charge, in his reaction to a PREMIUM TIMES' report which turned the spotlight on the handling of the judiciary's salaries in Benue State and three others.

The Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN) , which recently ended an over-two-month-old strike, had accused the state's governor, Samuel Ortom, and his counterparts in Plateau, Kaduna, and Bayelsa States, of withholding or deducting the judiciary's salaries.

JUSUN had embarked on a nationwide strike on April 6 to press for the implementa...