JUST IN: Gates Blocked As National Assembly Workers Begin Strike

Gates Blocked As National Assembly Workers Begin Strike

A barricade has been created at the entrance of the National Assembly Complex as Workers, under the auspices of the Parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria (PASAN), have begun their four-day warning strike to press home their demand for payment of their outstanding salaries.

The workers are also protesting non implementation of the Consolidated legislative Salary Suucture (CONLESS) that was approved in 2010 among other demands.

It was gathered that the aggrieved workers took over the entrances to the National Assembly Complex in the early hours of Monday – as they barricade the gates and prevent their colleagues from gaining access to the National Assembly complex.

The workers also said President Muhammadu Buhari would not be stopped from presenting the 2019 Appropriation Bill scheduled for Wednesday.

Speaking with the protesting workers at the entrance to the complex, Odo Chris MC said neither lawmakers, management staff from Grade Level 14 and above, nor visitors would be barred from the complex for the duration of the strike.

His words: “It is the members of the union that will not go to work, everybody else cam go in and do whatever they want to do.

“As a union, we don’t even have the power to stop Grade 14 officers and above from going in to perform their duties because they are not our members.

“I am appealing to you to be careful and apply wisdom as we carry out this strike because we have a law that guides us.

“This is not picketing, there should ne no fighting,there should be no breakdown of law and order.

“Right now, some of us will go in and shut off electricity supply, by the time the environment becomes unbearable for those that are working, they will leave as well.

“The President can go in and present his budget if the place is conducive enough”.

Details later..