RAYMOND OZOJI reports
The Majority Leader of the Anambra State House of Assembly Hon. Ikenna Sylvester Ofodeme and the lawmaker representing Aguata 1 state constituency Hon. Emmanuel Anayo Okpalaeke have described as arrant falsehoods and baseless fabrications that the leadership of the House and the state security outfit Udo Ga Chi squad barred journalists, assembly workers and other citizens from entering the House of Assembly complex on Tuesday 18th November, 2025.
It would be recalled that legislative staff have raised concerns over the non-implementation of the Consolidated Legislative Salary Structure (CONLESS), non-constitution of the House of Assembly Commission as well as non-payment of Special Allowances which they alleged have brought untold hardships upon them culminating into the current nationwide solidarity strike they have embarked upon in conjunction with their counterparts across the federation.
It was gathered that the striking parliamentary workers had placed the assembly complex in Awka under lock and key insisting that the Speaker and other Honourable members won't access the legislative chambers for plenary and any other business.
But the Majority Leader of the House and Aguata 1 constituency representative who spoke exclusively to this journalist in their offices on Tuesday shortly after plenary, maintained that the striking assembly workers have no rights whatsoever to disrupt House of Assembly proceedings nor prevent the Speaker from accessing his office.
The Majority Leader, Ikenna Sylvester Ofodeme, explained that the workers have no basis for the strike because they are on secondments in the House of Assembly as they were posted from the Head of Service and their appointment letters showed that they were directly employed by the Executive arm of the government and not the legislature.
He emphasized that until the House of Assembly Legislative Service Commission is formally constituted, the assembly workers remained under the direct employ of the Executive arm and as a result, the claim of being members of the Parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria (PASSAN) posed a very big question.
According to him, the rumour that Udo Ga Chi security operatives barred journalists and other citizens from accessing the assembly complex on Tuesday 18th November, 2025 was baseless because the House of Assembly, he said, is a public place where free entry and free exit is guaranteed, adding that there was no such situation because they conducted plenary and other legislative matters in the full glare of visitors at the gallery and members turned out too.
He disclosed that Governor Chukwuma Charles Soludo has assented to the law establishing the House of Assembly Service Commission and has also inspected the assembly complex to ascertain if there is land enough to build the commission therein.
Ofodeme was however of the opinion that rather than padlock all the doors of the assembly complex including the entrance gate, the striking workers would have opted for dialogue and negotiation to have their issues resolved amicably, adding that the rightful owners of the state assembly complex were the elected Honourable members.
He was also worried that the embattled House of Assembly staff were inadvertently poisoning the mind of the governor, whom he said has concluded plans to constitute board for the legislative service commission and equally build the commission's complex.
Corroborating what the Majority Leader said, Hon. Emmanuel Anayo Okpalaeke of Aguata 1 state constituency opined that even though the assembly workers were purportedly on strike, he also saw a handful of workers in the assembly complex carrying out their normal administrative duties dutifully.
Okpalaeke noted that there were no Udo Ga Chi security operatives around the complex except for the normal police personnel at the gate officially attached to the House of Assembly. That there were no security breaches and that the leadership of the House didn't restrict movements or prevented anyone from accessing the assembly complex on Tuesday.
The lawmaker maintained that he didn't notice that the assembly complex was under lock and key because when he came, everywhere was open and they had a robust plenary under a very tranquil atmosphere, pointing out that if the Speaker had restricted movements, there wouldn't have been visitors and journalists at the gallery to witness the session.
This journalist equally gathered that the House adjourned sitting to Thursday 20th November this year.
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