Aides to senators and members of the House of Representatives under the aegis of National Assembly Legislative Aides Forum ( NASSLAF) on Thursday accused the management of the federal parliament of diverting the N25bn meant to pay the arrears of their minimum wage for 21 months.
It consequently threatened to lead its 4,000 members on a peaceful protest next week Wednesday, to demand their money.
NASLAF Chairman, Salisu Zuru, while addressing journalists in Abuja, accused the management of the nation’s apex legislative body of diverting N25bn meant for the payment of his members’ salary arrears.
He said “In the 2019 Appropriation Act, the sum of N128bn was appropriated for salaries and overhead for legislators, National Assembly bureaucracy and legislative aides.
“This means that salaries and allowances of legislative aides and their principals (legislators) take effect from the day of the inauguration of the 9th Assembly officially recognized as their date of assumption of duty, 11 June, 2019.
“Legislative aides usually assume duty same day with their principals, but due to bottlenecks from the then National Assembly Service Commission, aides received appointment letters between 11 June – 31st December 2019, endorsed by their Principals with effective date from 11 June, 2019.
“When it was time for payment of the arrears, management chose to pay some aides and refused to pay others.
“As a prelude to what to expect in the coming weeks, the exco will lead over 4,000 legislative aides on a peaceful protest, Wednesday, 2nd March 2022 from 8 am.
“Accordingly, all aides are hereby mobilised to turn up en masse. After the warning protests, we shall reveal our next line of actions,” Zuru said.
However, the Clerk to the National Assembly, Mr Amos Ojo, has denied diverting N25bn that was to be used to pay the legislative aides arrears.
Speaking through Austen Adesoro, his Special Adviser on Media and Labour, the CNA described as “baseless speculative and unfounded allegations by the NASSLAFF that the National Assembly management allegedly diverted and embezzled funds appropriated for legislative aides”
Ojo said, “With cognizance to legitimate allowances yet to be paid to few Aides, NASSLAFF should learn to exhaust the internal mechanism for dispute resolutions as stipulated in the extant labour laws.
” They should also come to terms with the reality of the paucity of funds confronting the Legislature and the nation with urgent need to prioritize the copious needs on the ground.”
Ojo expressed the regret that the union leaders inability to communicate management’s challenges and efforts in finding solutions to its members but resort to deliberate blackmail thereby undermining their conditions of engagement which states that their appointment is at the instance of their principals.
The CNA stated that funds approved in December 2021 through Virement were N25bn which was meant for payment of minimum wage arrears and outstanding liabilities owed local contractors.
He said, “Out of the approved amount, N5bn was released for payment of minimum wage arrears wherein National Assembly staff and National Assembly Service Commission staff was allocated N2.3bn while legislative aides got N2.7bn.
“This amount regrettably was not enough, considering the large number of legislative aides to offset the total arrears owed.”
He added that the N20bn left for payment of liabilities owed local contractors are still domiciled with the Central Bank of Nigeria.
Meanwhile, NASSLAFF said they were demanding payment of the outstanding balance of the 2019 salary arrears and payment of the remaining 20 months’ minimum wage arrears.
Others according to him included the immediate implementation of the minimum wage consequential adjustment with effect from February 2022 and implementation of the initial 50 per cent CONLESS effective March 2022.
Their demands also included immediate payment of accumulated DTA from 2019 till date, with effect from March 2022.
They are also asking for the commencement of an immediate training programme for all cadres of legislative aides in the service of the National Assembly management.
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