Legislative aides in the National Assembly in their large numbers Wednesday protested over their unpaid allowances estimated at N1.5bn.The legislative aides, who converged at the lobby to the two chambers at about 10.20 a.m., chanted solidarity songs saying that they resorted to protest after failed promises made by the management of the National Assembly to pay up the entitlements.
They also warned that they would target Senate President Bukola Saraki and Speaker House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara during their next protest.
One of the legislative aides, Ucho Kingsley, who spoke to journalists, said many of his colleagues have endured hardship waiting for promises to off set the owed allowances.
He also said after over a year of working at the National Assembly, legislative aides had not been sent for training.
He said: “Today is the 12th day of the month and our salary has not been paid for last month. Our entitlements such as transport allowance for five quarters of the year since last year-has not been paid to us.
“It’s the same for our 28-day allowance, which has not been paid to most of us. We are entitled to training at least once each quarter, but till date, we have never been sent for training.
“Nobody has come to address us; nobody has come to speak to us. All we want is for our salaries to be paid on time, the same for our entitlements.”
Another aggrieved aide, Yusuf Sherrif -Modu, accused the management of paying permanent staff and neglecting legislative aides.
“I don’t know why this discrimination exists despite the important role we play to senators and members of the House of Representatives. “Today’s protest is to tell management that enough is enough, next time we storm this place, we will not allow the Speaker and the Senate President enter the chambers until they address us,” he said.
However, President of the National Assembly Legislative Aides Forum, NASSLAF, Samuel Melaye, while agreeing that some of his members were still being owed salaries and allowances, complained that he only heard about the protest after it has been held.
“I am not against what they are protesting about. But there is always the need to follow due process in anything we want to do and I believe that as stakeholder, I should have been informed about the protest,” he said.
He further explained that the official position of the National Assembly was that soon, payments will be made to cover all monies owed legislative aides.
“We met with the Clerk, Mohammed Sani-Omolori today (yesterday) and he assured...in fact, he even swore that not a dime of our entitlements will be left unpaid.
“Considering the fact the he recently resumed as CNA, I want to believe that he will keep to his words and that the payment of salaries will be made up to date.
“In fact, some people have started receiving alerts for their salary for this month,” he stated.
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