According to a report from Vanguard Newspaper,
STRONG indications emerged yesterday at the National Assembly that legislative
aides of Senators and members of House of Representatives are poised for a
showdown with the Clerk to the National Assembly, Alhaji Salisu Maikasuwa.
The aides said they were ready to engage
Maikasuwa if he goes ahead with the caretaker committee which he inaugurated to
put in place an electoral process to bring in elected officers. Addressing
journalists yesterday in Abuja, Chairman, National Assembly Legislative Aides
Forum, NASSLAF, Electoral Committee, Mr. Ishaya Nantur-Vangjen, said the
committee set up by the Clerk was not known to the constitution of the group,
hence their action will never be binding on members. He said each of the
12-member electoral committee, selected by NASSLAF from the six geo- political
zones, would organise a credible poll for the group, adding that the
constitution of the group stipulated that CNA shall direct the conduct of
election of the central working committee and that the executive shall, within
six months, inaugurate a new legislature.
Nantur-Vangjen, who noted that where the
clerk failed to call for election, 250 duly appointed members, stating their
file numbers, shall summon a congress to initiate the process of election and
communicate decision to the CNA, adding that the group had satisfied necessary
constitutional requirements to conduct the election. He stated that the
election process would start today and terminate on Tuesday, May 3. Some
members of the group announced the inauguration of an electoral body that would
organise the election that would usher in the elected officers of the group.
Maikasuwa had, in collaboration with top
management staff of the federal parliament, appointed a seven-member caretaker
committee, led by the younger brother of the Senator representing Kogi West
Senatorial District, Mr. Samuel Melaye. Melaye and six other members picked
from each of the six geo-political zones, were mandated by the Clerk to
organise a credible poll within three months. Melaye, on his part, has asked
all NASSLAF members in the National Assembly to await his caretaker committee’s
election timetable as he was determined to conduct a credible poll, saying “for
the clearance of doubt, the Clerk of National Assembly, Alhaji Salisu
Maikashuwa, had on March 23 appointed my caretaker committee to run the affairs
of the group for three months to create enabling environment to organise
election for substantive executive.
“This caretaker committee was set up to avoid
any form of vacuum created by the inauguration of current National Assembly which
marked the end of previous NASSLAF Executive led by now Honourable member of
House of Representatives, Hon. Mahmud Abdulkadir. “The inauguration conducted
by the Clerk of National Assembly took place within the National Assembly
premises, in the presence of all the representatives of various security
agencies in the National Assembly. “We wish to use this medium to urge bonafide
members of NASSLAF and general public to ignore the fictitious story meant to
cause friction amongst members and portray NASSLAF in bad light. In the midst
of expressing our electoral rights, we should not forget part of our vision in
NASSLAF, which is to protect collective interest of National Assembly
Legislative Aides and serve our bosses diligently.”
