Legislative aides protest at National Assembly over non-payment of salaries
- Legislative aides to both senators and House of Reps members staged a protest over non-payment of salaries
- Lawson Oviasoje, one of the protesters, said the National Assembly management has not paid them for six months
- Oviasoje added a few of his colleagues who have been paid were not given the appropriate amount due to them
As workers across the country press for payment of the new minimum wage, some legislative aides to federal lawmakers have staged a peaceful protest to demand payment of backlog of salaries they are being owed.
Premium Times reports that the aides on Thursday, December 19, protested around the National Assembly, displaying placards with various inscriptions such as, “we are aides, not slaves”, “it is a grievous sin to deny workers of their wages.”
One of the protesters who is an aide to a Bayelsa lawmaker in the House of Representatives, Lawson Oviasoje, said the National Assembly management has not paid them for six months.
Oviasoje said the few aides who have been paid were "shortchanged".
Source: Twitter
The aide said the management's refusal to pay them was a plot to discourage them.
He said: “The impunity in this institution is overwhelming. The point I’m making is that there is an attempt to short pay aides after such monies have been released by the finance ministry to pay aides because some of our colleagues were paid in full and some were paid for two, three months.
“What is the rationale for deciding who gets fully paid or should be shortchanged?”
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This is not the first demonstration by legislative aides. Recall that the aides of the eighth Senate had staged a similar protest in 2018 making the same demands.
The protest had forced the then-Senate president, Bukola Saraki, to call a meeting with the management of the National Assembly.
The protest by the aides was triggered by the death of their colleague which they attributed to his inability to pay his hospital bill.
The deceased, until his death was an aide to the former deputy speaker, House of Representatives, Honourable Yusuf Lasun.
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