ABUJA (Sundiata Post) – The Parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria (PASAN) has threatened to shut down the two legislative chambers of the National Assembly should the tenure of some senior officers who were due for retirement be extended.
Rising from a meeting on Wednesday, the national chapter of PASSAN said that it was aware of pressure from influential quarters within and outside the National Assembly to get the National Assembly Service Commission to extend the tenure of key senior staff who were almost due for retirement.
The association noted that the move was not only a breach of the civil service rule but would be counter productive to the National Assembly bureacracy.
Bature Musa, chairman, PASAN, National Assembly chapter, declared that PASAN could go to the extent of shutting the gate of the National Assembly should such decision be taken.
Meanwhile, Clerk of the National Assembly, (CNA), Alhaji Mohammed Sani Omolori, has assured that no matter the pressure, he would never support any measure that ran contrary to the rules of the civil service in the performance of his duties.
Addressing the workers during the meeting, Omolori said that although he was not aware of such pressure, nothing would make him bend the rules of the service.
Omolori’s appointment as clerk of the National Assembly was confirmed just on Tuesday having been appointed in acting capacity since April, 2016.
Omolori’s appointment was opposed by Senate President, Abubakar Bukola Saraki, who had insisted that the deputy clerk of the National Assembly, Benedict Efeturi, was the right person to be appointed as substantive clerk of National Assembly.
Chairman of National Assembly Service Commission, Dr. Adamu Fika, had in the appointment letter, said Sani-Omolori would replace Alhaji Salisu Maikasuwa who went on terminal leave on May 14.
He congratulated Sani-Omolori, saying his appointment was an acknowledgement of his hard work and dedication to duty and wished him well in his new office. But the appointment came as a rude shock to the leadership of the National Assembly which had expected Efeturi to replace Maikasuwa in acting capacity on the basis of seniority.
