LAGOS MARCH 4TH (URHOBOTODAY)-The Parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria (PASAN) sealed up the Delta State Assembly chambers and chased out Speaker Monday Igbuya and other members of the Assembly on Tuesday. The angry Assembly workers also scuttled the day’s sitting over what they called “high headedness” and insensitivity by the Speaker towards workers’ welfare.
SaharaReporters learned that the workers sealed up the chambers at about 10 a.m. Thus far, all the workers’ attempts to meet with Speaker Igbuya and the leadership of the House on issues concerning their welfare have fallen on deaf ears since he assumed office over eight months ago.
The workers, however, vowed that the House would not sit until they were given due attention.
Speaking on behalf of the workers, PASAN State Chairman McCarthy Oburutu explained that the Speaker’s stoppage of their special duty allowance (SDA), which they had been receiving until now, triggered their actions.
While calling for the immediate restoration of the SDA, which makes up 35 percent of the workers’ basic salary, Mr. Oburutu stated that it would be unfair for the Speaker to stop the SDA when their colleagues in others States are being paid.
In response to the workers’ actions, Speaker Igbuya mobilized armed policemen from the State Police Command, who flooded the Assembly complex to forestall any breakdown of law and order.
Minutes into the incident, the Speaker resurfaced and told the workers that he was not answerable to them and therefore advised them to channel their grievances to the State Head of Service, claiming that the stoppage was not limited to the Assembly workers.
The embattled Speaker, however, admitted that the SDA was suspended, although not removed entirely, in order to enable the government to embark on a verification exercise to determine who benefits from it.
It was gathered, though not confirmed, that the House later held a plenary for about five minutes after a closed door meeting with the leadership of the union.