11 Governors Dragged To ICC Over Unpaid Workers Salaries

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) have filed a petition at the International Criminal Court (ICC) against eleven state governments in the country over their failure to pay salaries to their workers.

The organization in the petition requested the Prosecutor, ICC, Mrs. Fatou Bensouda, to use her position to investigate allegations of collective punishment and crimes against humanity against tens of thousands of Nigerian workers as a result of non-payment of their salaries for several months by their state governments.

The affected states are Bayelsa, Benue, Bauchi, Osun, Rivers, Oyo, Ekiti, Kwara, Kogi, Ondo, and Plateau states.

In the petition dated July 7, 2016 and signed by SERAP Executive Director, Mr Adetokunbo Mumuni, the organisation expressed concern that non-payment of workers’ salaries by several state governments in the country has made life impossible to live for the workers and families.

SERAP therefore urged the ICC prosecutor, Mrs. Bensouda, “to bring to justice anyone who is responsible for the inhumane acts committed against Nigerian workers and prohibited under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court to which Nigeria is a state party.”

The organization contended many Nigerians now face severe deprivation mental and physical health challenges as a result of the non-payment of their salaries.

It said that many governors have continue to hide under the excuse of ‘limited allocations from Abuja’ to deny these workers the fruit of their labour while the workers’ individual liability have continued to rise.