Skip to main content

NASS legislative aides protest unpaid N1.5bn allowances


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.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Omagbemi frees Angels, Queens for Fed Cup final

Super Falcons’ Head Coach, Florence Omagbemi, has elected to release players of Rivers Angels and Bayelsa Queens in the Senior Women National Team camp for Sunday’s potentially explosive women Federation Cup final between both teams in Lagos. Omagbemi The member of FIFA Technical Study said the ladies would be allowed to leave the team’s camp in Abuja to travel to Lagos for the big clash, which starts at 1pm at the Teslim Balogun Stadium on Sunday. That decision has freed Angels’ half dozen of goalkeeper Ibubeleye Whyte, defenders Osinachi Ohale, Ugo Njoku and Gladys Akpa and midfielders Chioma Wogu and Glory Iroka to be part of the glamour event, to be attended by the Governors of Lagos, Anambra, Nasarawa, Bayelsa and Rivers States. Bayelsa Queens’ duo of goalkeeper Alaba Jonathan and playmaker Osarenoma Igbinovia will also be on duty. The involvement of the Super Falcons’ stars will certainly boost the quality of the final match, and ensure the two teams do not miss their Falco...
Post a Comment
Read more

Supreme Court doesn’t need 21 justices – CJN

The acting Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter Onnoghen, has said appointing more judges or increasing the number of courtrooms are not the solutions to the problem of delayed justice dispensation in the country. The acting CJN said the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court would  remain congested so long as the number of appeals proceeding there from the high courts was not regulated. Justice Onnoghen also argued that it was erroneous to believe that delay at the Supreme Court was as a result of not having up to 21 Justices prescribed by the constitution. He noted hat even the United States of America, with a higher population, had only nine Supreme Court Justices. He argued that the current 17 Justices on the Supreme Court bench were just enough for the country, if the number of appeals proceeding to the appellate and apex courts was regulated. Justice Onnoghen made this argument on Monday in Lagos while inaugurating the newly refurbished building of the Lagos Division o...
Post a Comment
Read more

Trump ex-aide Paul Manafort 'offered to help Putin'

US President Donald Trump's one-time campaign chairman secretly worked for a Russian billionaire to assist President Vladimir Putin, the Associated Press (AP) news agency reports. Paul Manafort is said to have proposed a strategy to nullify anti-Russian opposition across former Soviet republics a decade ago. AP says documents and interviews support its claims about Mr Manafort. Mr Manafort has insisted that he never worked for Russian interests. He worked as Mr Trump's unpaid campaign chairman from March until August last year, including the period during which the flamboyant New York billionaire clinched the Republican nomination. He resigned after AP revealed that he had co-ordinated a secret Washington lobbying operation on behalf of Ukraine's ruling pro-Russian political party until 2014. Newly obtained business records link Mr Manafort more directly to Mr Putin's interests in the region, AP says. Donald Trump unpaid Campaign Chairman It ...
Post a Comment
Read more