PASAN strike: Lawmakers can’t seat for 2nd reading of Okowa’s 2017 budget

The strike embarked upon by workers of the Delta state House of Assembly entered its second day today disrupting the seating of legislators who had adjourned last Thursday to resume plenary today.  

The workers under the auspices of their union, Parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria (PASAN), in the early hours of Monday, shut the two gates leading to the assembly complex, declaring a resumption of the strike they suspended in February 2016.

Governor Ifeanyi Okowa

PASAN leader, Mr. Emmanuel Edozie told reporters that they had to resume the strike when the leadership of the Assembly refused to dialogue with the workers’ union to determine pending issues which the workers want the Assembly to resolve.

On the demands of the workers, Edozie said: “Apart from imprest and running cost, the four main items are funding of our clinic, appointment of a deputy clerk, outfit allowance and payment of outstanding death benefits.”

A visit to the Assembly complex showed that the gates to the complex were firmly locked, while policemen and their vans were standing by. No law maker was in sight, as they all stayed away from the complex.

Monday Igbuya, DTHA Speaker

After Governor Ifeanyi Okowa presented his 2017 budget proposal to the legislators, the House after first reading of the budget bill adjourned till Tuesday (today) for the second reading, apparently unknown to them that the workers had planned to embark on strike to press home their demands.

The workers are insisting that the strike will remain indefinite until the Speaker, Monday Igbuya decides to call them for dialogue.

He told journalists: “As a matter of fact, the staffs planned to do the protest last Thursday but we did everything to prevail on them. When the governor was driving in we were having a congress meeting. If you noticed that day, all the staffs were wearing black outfits because we are mourning our staffs who died. We lost one staff on Sunday morning and another on Wednesday evening, an interval of four days. That day people were putting on black and wanted to protest to the governor for him to see their plight. But we decided to prevail on them out of respect for the governor.”

Edozie continued: “although the Speaker said he did not receive our communiqué but we passed the letter through the right channel that we have always used in the past. And this channel is through the Clerk of the house, and we copied all principal officers.

“We are more interested in the resolution of this matter. How long the strike will last will depend on how long it will take the Speaker to call us for dialogue.”

Efforts to get the Speaker to speak failed. His Chief Press Secretary Mr. Henry Enireiri told Banner Media Network on phone that the speaker and most of the legislators were not around, and that he was not aware of any strike action declared by PASAN.