RAYMOND OZOJI reports
Investigations into the Anambra State House of Assembly reveal that parliamentary workers clamouring and agitating for better working conditions have been arbitrarily transferred from the state assembly to other Ministries, Departments and Agencies of the state government for alleged insubordination and disruption of parliamentary businesses.
Recall that the workers had joined their counterparts nationwide to protest against the non-implementation of Consolidated Legislative Salary Structure (CONLESS), the non-existence of a Legislative Service Commission as well as the non-payment of Special Allowances alongside other pressing demands which led to the locking of the legislative chambers, the Speaker's office and some other offices in the assembly complex by the protesting workers.
But recent findings from the state assembly complex has it that some of the workers involved in the struggle have been randomly evicted from the legislature and redeployed to other MDAs in the state civil service even as some of the transferred officers faced outright rejections in the ministries where they were transfered to.
A source who is a victim of the arbitrary transfers told this journalist that the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) is currently intervening to ensure the recall of workers who have been arbitrarily removed from the state assembly; describing it as pure and outright victimization.
The source who spoke exclusively to this journalist shortly before Governor Chukwuma Charles Soludo presented his 2026 budget estimate on Tuesday, said what they were fighting for was constitutional and they should not be victimized for it.
The source maintained that the lawmakers have pleaded with them to call off strike, which they did even though the national strike embarked upon by the Parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria (PASSAN) was still on yet still majority of the PASSAN executives were booted out from the state assembly complex, stressing that it is pure victimization and that courtesy demands they do the right thing.
The source said when some of the transfered workers reported at their new offices, they all faced stiff rejections because they were told to their faces that they don't belong there, pointing out that the Secretary of the state chapter of PASSAN was rejected at the Ministry of Local Government, Chieftaincy and Community Affairs on the grounds that as a legislative officer, he can not work in the ministry.
The source stated that irrespective of the blight cast on the affected state assembly staff following their evictions from the legislature, it expressed hope that they would get justice in the end because the national body of PASSAN has waded in
Meanwhile the Commissioner for Budget Hon. Chiamaka Nnake during post budget media briefing in her office, told journalists that the House of Assembly Service Commission is captured in the 2026 budget appropriations which implied that the construction of the commission's complex will commence in no distant time.
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