A body under the aegis of the Next Level Due Process Group, has advised Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, and Speaker, House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, not to get involved in the alleged plot to illegally extend tenures of some management staff of the National Assembly.
There have been raging controversies over reported plans to implement an alleged forged Condition of Service for the National Assembly management, under the leadership of Clerk to the apex legislative institution, Ataba Sani-Omolori, by increasing retirement age and years of service of staff from 35 to 40, and 60 to 65 respectively.
The group has also called on Chairman of the National Assembly Service Commission (NASC), Engr. Ahmed Kadi Amshi, not to soil his reputation by playing into the hands of people it called the cabals behind the move to smuggle in and implement a policy not backed by any law.
In a statement jointly signed by its Chairman and Secretary, Alhaji Abdullahi Tanko Aliyu, and Chiedu Agbanusi on Monday in Abuja, the group said it was “illegal and criminal” for the management of National Assembly to implement a bill, which has not been signed into law by the president.
It further urged the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and minister for justice, Mallam Abubakar Malami (SAN), the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) to “investigate the fraud”, which is an embarrassment and a slap on the anti-corruption fight and the next level mantra of President Muhammadu Buhari, adding that both the Senate and House Committees on Judiciary and Justice should intervene and save the nation from this impunity.
The group in the statement described as lame, “argument by a faction of PASAN (staff association) loyal to the CNA that a similar gesture had been extended to the judiciary and academic staff of universities and polytechnics is laughable and does not hold water because in such cases, the retirement age was effected through due legislative procedures in the form of Bill’s and were duly signed by the president before they became operational”.
“It is on record that then President Goodluck Jonathan signed the bill increasing the retirement age of staff in the professorial cadre and non-academic staff in Nigerian universities and polytechnics to 70 and 65 years respectively into law on Januaty 18, 2012.
“We challenge Senator Ahmad Lawan, Rep. Femi Gbajabiamila, Engr. Ahmed Amshi and CNA Mohammed Sani-Omolori to show Nigerians where the National Assembly Retirement Age and Revised Condition of Service bill was signed into law by President Buhari after its passage in 2019. If the management of NASS is denying that this was not a bill, why insert the 5 years tenure elongation in the Revised Condition of Service?”, the group said
