Hundreds of protesters, who are disengaged members of staff of the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), in the early hours of Tuesday, stormed the National Assembly Complex in Abuja and grounded all activities, locking out the President of the Senate,Senator David Mark,Speaker of the House of Representatives, Alhaji Waziri Aminu Tambuwal, other lawmakers, staff and visitors to the complex.
While all the lawmakers in the two chambers managed to gain entrance into the complex through the villa route,visitors and staff with valid ID cards made use of the alternative route after almost two kilometres trek as all vehicles had no access into the complex.
The angry protesters who stormed the assembly complex with sleeping mats, beddings and their kids, vowed not to vacate the premises until their demands were met.
They were among other things, demanding for the sack of the Director-General of the Commission , Mr Chris Onyenema, by the Federal Government over the sack of over 4000 staff without following due process,reinstatement of the affected staff or payment of their full benefits.
The protesters, armed with placards with various inscriptions, demanded that the DG be immediately relieved of his position as he was alleged to have swindled the agency through various acts of commission and omission.
According to some of the protesters, the disengaged and aggrieved former staff of the commission decided to storm the National Assembly complex by surprise as their earlier peaceful visits and petitions to the National Assembly on the of the plight of the disengaged staff had not yielded any fruitful result.
However, the two chambers resumed their plenary sessions without making reference to the incident.
No comments:
Post a Comment