Staff lock down National Assembly

True to their threat of a four-day warning strike, staff of the National Assembly have blocked entrances and exits leading to vast office complex that houses the two chambers of Senate and House of Representatives and lawmakers offices.
President Muhammadu Buhari is billed to present the 2019 Budget to federal lawmakers on Wednesday.
Security men have taken positions around the complex to forestal a breakdown of law and order. The complex in the three-arms zone borders the Presidential Villa, the office and residence of President Muhammadu Buhari.
The workers under the auspices of the Parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria (PASAN) two Fridays ago threatened to embark on an indefinite strike if the management of the legislature failed to meet their demands.
The strike beginning today is a precursor to the indefinite one.
The Chairman of PASAN, Comrade Musa Bature, gave the warning after the aggrieved staff had on December 4, picketed the assembly complex, putting legislative proceedings in both houses on hold..
The House of Representatives am11 days ago at plenary asked the Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, to appear before it to give explanations as to why the PASAN’s funds captured in the 2018 Budget was yet to be released.
Addressing journalists, Bature said that the picketing which started on Tuesday 4th December was to last till Thursday, December 6 as a prelude and warning signal to a proposed total strike action billed to begin on December 18, but for the intervention of NASS leadership.
He stressed that the planned industrial action would commence as earlier scheduled if their demands were not met as promised.
He said: “We thank the political leadership of National Assembly for their intervention.
“We hereby reiterate that the proposed indefinite industrial action that will ground all legislative activities of National Assembly will commence as earlier scheduled if the demands are not met as promised.”