PASAN shut out Delta lawmakers from Assembly complex, resume indefinite strike

·        Says Speaker is insensitive, adamant to workers demand and plight

The ding-dong affair between the leadership of the Delta State House of Assembly and the workers boiled over again yesterday when the workers resumed the strike action they suspended late last year to underscore the insensitivity of the legislators to their demands.

Accordingly, the entrance to the Assembly Complex was sealed off yesterday as the workers’ union, under the aegis of the Parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria (PASAN), Delta State chapter prevented vehicular movement and human movements into the complex. Not even legislators who were supposed to seat yesterday could access their offices.

Rt. Hon. Monday Igbuya, Delta Speake.

PASAN Chairman, Comrade Edozie Emmanuel told BMN that the workers had to resume the suspended strike action because the Assembly leadership has failed to fulfill the promises made to the workers.

He said: “We say pay us our 2016 wardrobe allowance and appoint a deputy clerk for us. That position has been vacant since 2015. It has created a vacuum; we are being stagnated in our career in the Assembly Service commission.

“The promises made were not fulfilled. None has been fulfilled. The clinic as we talk ow is dead. No drugs; this is despite the promises made.

“We had suspended the strike because we thought they were telling us the truth. But up till now, the money has not been paid; the issue of deputy clerk has not been resolved. We have communicated our resolution to resume the suspended strike to the leadership of the Assembly.

Comrade Emmanuel is surprised at the attitude of the leadership of the Assembly which refused to dialogue with the workers’ union despite several efforts made to engage it. “They ignored us, saying that they are not responsible to us,” Emmanuel said.

He said that while the legislators get their allowances and entitlements with ease, the entitlements of the workers is not of any importance to them. ‘The Speaker is insensitive and adamant to our requests and plight of the workers. He does not carry the phone when calls are made to him,” Comrade Emmanuel said, adding:

“All is not well in the Delta State House of Assembly. For minor work that the workers are employed to do, they prefer to bring in outsiders to come and do them. We are not calling of this strike until our demands are fully met,”  Comrade Emmanuel said