Protesting N'Assembly Staff Block Complex Over Unpaid Benefits, Alleged Exploitation
ABUJA, May 07, (THEWILL) – The National Assembly complex in Abuja literarily came under lock and key in the early hours of Tuesday as staff who were protesting unpaid benefits and exploitation by their management blocked all entrances to the complex.
Chanting protests songs like “solidarity forever”, they barricaded the entrance into the Senate and House of Representatives chambers.
The staff were particularly miffed over alleged illegal deductions from their salaries and diversion of their training funds by their management.
The protesters who kept chanting various protest songs organised a parade round the vast National Assembly complex. They were to later ambush the Senate President, David Mark, who was coming out from the plenary.
Attempts by other principal officers of the Senate, including the Senate Leader, Victor Ndoma-Egba (SAN) and the Deputy Senate Leader, Abdul Ningi, to address the protesters were rebuffed. They rather insisted that they will not listen to anybody other than the Senate President.
The Senate President obliged and addressed them. He also promised to look into their complaints.
Mark appealed to them to go back to their duty posts, saying he will consult with the Speaker of House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, for the final resolution of the issues raised.
It would be recalled that the staff of the National Assembly, under the aegis of G-1200, had petitioned the leadership of the National Assembly over their unpaid benefits.
In a letter to the Senate President and House of Representatives Speaker Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, the workers threatened to go on strike, if their demands were not met urgently.
The petition letter, dated April 25 was signed by the G-1200 Chairman, Comrade Ochigbo Ejigah, as well as Comrade Halima Ahmed (Secretary) and Adeniyi Yusuf (Publicity Secretary). Copies of the letter were sent to principal officers of the Senate and the House of Representatives, some committee chairmen and President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC).
The petition read: “Recall that the Senate, at its sitting on Wednesday, May 26, 2010, approved over N11billion for the payment of the Consolidated Legislative Salary Structure (CONLESS) in concurrence with the 100 per cent increase in salaries and allowances passed by the House of Representatives on Tuesday, May 25, 2010 for National Assembly workers, including the legislative aides and the staff of the National Assembly Service Commission.
“Recall also that according to the report of the Senate Committee on Establishment and Public Service, the legislative aides, numbering 2,942, were to get N6,026,811,522 as against the then N3,444,576,893.
“The National Assembly workers, whose number stood at 3,167, were allocated N4,576,867,627 as against the then N2,660,005,145, while the National Assembly Service Commission, with a staff strength of 317, was allocated N437,019,166 as against N27,985,917 annually. Further recall that the two chambers of the National Assembly on Wednesday, July 7, 2010, adopted the conference committee’s report on CONLESS, as harmonised.
“Note that the approved CONLESS was intended to earn Grade Level 04, step 1 Officer about N41,451 while Grade Level 08 Step 1 would earn N122,884.50 monthly. This calculation was based on the 25 per cent annual Outfit and Legislative Duty Allowances, in addition to the CONLESS divided by 12 calendar months.”
On Tuesday, leader of the protesters, Comrade Chris Odoh, accused the management of National Assembly of subjecting them to oppression with the aim to impoverish them for selfish gains.
He said it has become a tradition in National Assembly that each time an approval is given for staff welfare, the management will conceal and divert it to their personal pockets.
While recalling that the management of National Assembly led by Salisu Maikasua, attempted to divert the 52 per cent basic salary for federal civil servants, which was approved by President Goodluck Jonathan, Odoh said they are protesting the diversion of funds appropriated for their capacity building.
He added that similar deductions have been witnessed in the guise of pension, taxes, etc, claiming that those deductions have been diverted into personal pockets by the National Assembly management.
Against this background, he demanded that the management should refund N10,000 it allegedly extorted from the staff, in addition to payment of arrears of their welfare packages and other benefits within 21 days or face severe industrial action.