Imo Assembly Workers Lock-out Corpse Of Ex-speaker Over Unpaid Salaries

The deceased speaker

Angry Staff of the Imo State House of Assembly Thursday locked the gates of the assembly complex and stopped the corpse of the first Speaker of the state legislature, Hon. Gideon Ndubuisi Atulomah from being laid in state for a valedictory session New Telegraph Newspaper reports

The action of the workers, it was  learnt, was to press home their demand for their six months’ salary arrears to be paid by the state government.

The bedlam that ensued threw lawmakers into confusion, while the deceased family and mourners as well as visitors to the complex were locked out for close to one hour.

The workers barricaded the gates of the complex and chanted solidarity songs reflecting their grievances.

Speaking with journalists, the chairman of the state chapter of the Parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria (PASAN), Mrs. Ngozi Ofoegbu, lamented that the workers of the Assembly had not been paid for six month while ‘some of our members have died because they could not afford money for medical treatment’.

“We did this to show the world that we are still being treated as if we are no longer needed in the service. We don’t understand this kind of heartlessness by the governor and his men. All we are asking for is that we be paid our salaries which were last paid in March 2015.”