By Soni Daniel, Regional Editor, North

Two senior judicial officers have been ordered by the Federal Government to vacate their offices with immediate effect in strict adherence to its tenure policy, which came into effect about four years ago.

The duo of Danladi Halilu, Executive Secretary of the National Judicial Council and his counterpart in the Federal Judicial Service Commission, FJSC, Hajiya Bashir, were ordered by the office of the Head of Service of the Federation, HOCSF, which oversees service matters, to go home with immediate effect, having stayed on their posts for over eight years as stipulated in the new policy.

Apart from the two officers, Vanguard learnt that the new policy directive might also sweep away the jobs of many other directors, who are holding sway at the two judiciary establishments.

Before the latest attention on the judiciary, that arm of the government had consistently maintained that it was not bound by that directive and that its officers could stay on for as long as they did not hit retirement age.

But they were proved wrong, as the HoSF last month wrote to the affected officers, drawing their attention to the fact that only judges were exempted from the tenure policy.

The letter from the HoSF, which was endorsed by Kehinde Adeyemi, on behalf of the HoSF, requested the affected executive secretaries and directors who had served the maximum of eight years on the posts to proceed on retirement immediately.

The action of the HoSF followed a letter by the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation seeking clarification on whether the policy applied to judiciary staff.

The Auditor General in his letter wrote: “I write to request for the interpretation of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation’s circulars Nos. HCSF/061/S.1/111/68 of 29th August, 2009 and HCS/06/S.1/111/188 of 21st October, 2009 on Tenure of Office for Permanent Secretaries and Directors as they relate to the Judicial arm of the government. namely, the Executive Secretaries and the Directors who have spent eight years and above with the judiciary.

“There has been an argument from the courts we audit that the judiciary is exempted hence the need for the clarification.