Former Legislative Aides Accuse National Assembly Leaders Of Hijacking Their Severance Entitlements

According to a report by SaharaReporters, some former legislative aides in the 9th National Assembly have made serious accusations against the leadership of the National Assembly.

They accused the National Assembly leadership of hijacking their severance entitlements.

The former aides cried out to President Bola Tinubu to help them recover their severance entitlements from the National Assembly authorities.

The affected persons lamented that they had not been paid six months after they left office. The left office in June 2023.

According to them, they are dying of hunger because of lack of money.

The group in a statement signed by one Mary Johnson and obtained by SaharaReporters on Wednesday, while reacting to the delay of the entitlement, condemned the Severance Committee update on the issue.

The update was given in a statement signed by Bola Adeyemo, Secretary, NASSLAF/Coordinator, Severance Committee, 9th National Assembly.

The statement signed by Adeyemo reads, "We want to use this medium to congratulate the 9th National Assembly Legislative Aides for the successful completion of the tenure.

“Though not all Aides who started the tenure that finished with us. We pray that Almighty God console the families they left behind, one (1) minute silence for the departed soul. May their gentle souls rest with God. Amen

"However, after due diligent and a serious work has been done in making sure all Aides are paid what is due to them. The Severance Committee (Management and Legislative Aides) has worked tirelessly and efficiently to pay Aides their severance package accordingly.

"Furthermore, the awaiting Severance Package, according to the Nass management, the payment of severance will commence first week of December 2023, (starting from 6th December, 2023).

"The payment will be in batches, if your name is not included in the first batch, be rest assured that subsequent batches you will be included and at the end of the exercise, everyone that is qualified for severance will be paid.

"We want to reiterate our commitments to the welfare of our colleagues, to making sure they get the wages of their labour for good four years.

"Consequently, if there are complaints regarding the payments of severance, you can channel it through the committee.”

However, the group described the statement as fake, noting that after six months, no payment had been made.

The former legislative aides described the information as “fake”.

"However, it was another fake information flying around that the severance payment began last week - December 8”.

The legislative aides accused the National Assembly leaders and Severance Committee of conniving with the banks to fix the NASS severance aides’ money in banks and use their “entitlements to enrich themselves".

The group vowed that if no payment of their severance entitlements was done within two working days, they would ground the activities of the National Assembly.

Meanwhile, a source in the National Assembly who confirmed the development to SaharaReporters, said they had started the payment but suddenly stopped.

"It was divided into six batches; they started the payment, but they stopped suddenly after paying the first batch," the source said.