Parliamentary Workers Shut Abia Assembly over Financial Autonomy

Emmanuel Ugwu-Nwogo in Umuahia

Legislative activities at the Abia State House of Assembly were grounded Monday, as workers under the aegis of the Parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria (PASAN), shut down the Assembly complex.

The workers said that they were compelled to embark on an indefinite strike following the failure of the Abia State government to implement the financial autonomy granted to state legislatures.

To express their displeasure, the PASAN members, led by their leaders, barricaded the Assembly entrance chanting solidarity songs and displaying placards with different inscriptions.

The union hoisted its large banner at the Assembly gate with the task force preventing people from gaining access into the complex located at Ogurube Layout, Umuahia.

The Chairman Abia PASAN, Sunday Kalu, told journalists that the state chapter was acting in compliance with the directive from the national leadership of the trade union.

He said that some states had already started partial implementation of the financial autonomy but due process was not fully followed.

“In Abia, we have not gotten the administrative autonomy which is paramount,” adding that: “The Abia State House of Assembly Commission Law that empowers the Assembly to stay on its own administratively is yet to take effect.”

According to him, Abia PASAN is also protesting the failure of the state government to domesticate the Executive Order 10 signed by President Muhammadu Buhari in 2020.

He recalled that the union had embarked on the strike some years back, but later suspended it after government made assuring promises, adding that “up till now nothing has been done.”

Kalu insisted that the union has decided that the indefinite strike would last as long as government has nothing concrete “for our members”.

“We are calling on the state government to do the needful by constituting the Assembly commission and then the financial autonomy,” he said.