Council Lawyers Want Salary Parity With State Counsels

Some aggrieved lawyers under the aegis of Em-ployed Lawyers in the 23 local government areas of Rivers State have dragged the State Government, Local Government Service Commission and Attorney General of the state before a National Industrial Court (NIC) sitting in Port Harcourt over disparity in payment of salary.
The aggrieved local government council lawyers want the court to compel the defendants in the suit to pay them the same salary scale with other lawyers with the same grade employed at other state Ministry of Justice.
However, when the matter came up  on Wednesday,  before Justice Polycap Aman, the claimants Counsel, O. C Higher-King asked the court to enter judgment in their favour and also disqualify  the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Prof Adangor  Zaccheus, from representing himself and other  parties  in the matter, saying that the rule of  law practice stipulates a  lawyer is not allowed to represent himself or herself in a matter involving them
In his response, the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice Professor Zacheus Adangor  who is representing himself and other parties in the matter objected to the motion and urged the court to dismiss the suit with substantial cost, arguing that the Claimants in the suit are not employed as law officers but as lawyers in those local government councils
According to him, only those employed as law officers are entitled for the legal salary, adding that the local government lawyers who are demanding the salary parity with those in the Ministry of Justice are not employed as law officers
The trial Judge, Justice, Polycap Aman after listening to the arguments of the both parties adjourned till 16th of March, 2021 for ruling on the motion.
Speaking to newsmen outside the court, counsel to the aggrieved legal practitioners, O.C Higher-King said they were in court to correct the disparity in the payment among lawyers in the legal profession and urged the court to enter judgment in their favour without further hearing on the matter.
On his part, the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Professor Zaccheus Adangor explained that he objected to the motion on the grounds that they were not law officers and that the court should dismissed the suit in its entirety.