The face-off between the management of the National Assembly and some aggrieved staff has assumed another dimension following the stepping down of a Concurrence Bill in the Senate on the extension of the retirement age from 60 to 65 years.
Checks revealed that some members of the Parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria (PASAN) allegedly signed a communique endorsing the Extension of Service Bill.
However, the Foundation for Rights Enforcement, Enlightenment and Defence while responding to the development on Monday, alleged that the Clerk of the National Assembly, Magaji Tambawal, was behind the move to extend his stay in office, less than one year to the end of his tenure in office.
Its Leader, Mohammed Saidu, challenged the Clerk and other members of the union to reveal details of their terms of service when they joined the National Assembly bureaucracy.
Saidu said, “This time, we want to put it to the Clerk that he is misleading the 10th Assembly, using a compromised union to pursue his personal ambition of breaching the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“It is only the Clerk that thinks that the union has the capacity to regulate their service year. The same Clerk during the election of the Senate president, Godswill Akpabio, jettisoned the Senate rule on ranking but rather used the 1999 constitution as amended.
“Today, the same Clerk wants to mislead the 10th Assembly by lobbying the National Assembly on a matter that is against the constitution.
“Ask the Clerk, did he not summon a meeting of the management of the National Assembly and the Agenda was 65 years and 40 years?
“This man is supposed to proceed on leave in April this year. What do you expect from such a congress? Ask the Clerk who sponsored the public hearing that was done without any advert and was done the day the Nigerian Labour Congress went on strike?.”
