….DSS summons Commission’s chair, union leaders

The festering crisis in the National Assembly, over the purported tenure elongation of the Clerk, Mohammed Sani-Omolori, may soon be over, following the planned reversal of the retirement age and conditions of service controversy.

The crisis which began since the current Clerk to the National Assembly, Sani-Omolori assumed office, has created factions in the rank and file of the National Assembly bureaucracy.

According to documents made available to Daily Sun, the condition of service of National Assembly staff was amended at the twilight of the 8th National Assembly, where a Bill titled ‘Retirement age and conditions of service’, was ‘smuggled’ in by the last leadership.

According to the document, the retirement age for civil servants in the National Assembly was moved from 35 to 40 years. The retirement age was upgraded from 60 to 65 years.

It was learnt that the ‘amended’ rule was being implemented, despite the fact that it wasn’t passed by both chambers of the 8th Assembly and signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari.

According to details of the controversial document, the Clerk to the National Assembly, Sani-Omolori and about 150 officers are expected to remain in office for another four to five years, despite attaining the legal age of retirement.

Daily Sun has reliably gathered that the newly-inaugurated board of the National Assembly Service Commission (NASC), upon resumption, set up a Committee to re-examine the implementation of the controversial Harmonised Retirement Age of the Staff of the National Assembly Service.

It was learnt that the Committee has submitted its report and has yanked off the controversial five-year tenure enlogation of the Clerk, Sani-Omolori and over 150 other senior staff.

If the recommendations of the Committee are implemented, the Clerk who clocked 35 years in service in February, maybe forced to proceed on a compulsory retirement, preparatory to his retirement.

Speaking on the development, Chairmen of National Assembly and NASC chapters of Parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria (PASAN), Sunday Sabiyi and Ojemeri Oisamaye, in a letter addressed to the chairman of NASC, Ahmed Amshi, urged him to invoke the powers of the Commission.

Part of the letter obtained by Daily Sun read: “We strongly implore the Commission to invoke its powers, in line with Sections 6(8), 7(1)(b) and 19 as well other relevant sections of the NASC Act, 2014, to holistically review the conditions of service and streamline the irregularities found therein.”

They said at no time did they support the tenure enlogation of the Clerk and other senior staff due for retirement. They further argued that instead, the controversial issue should be jettisoned.

Meanwhile, the Department of State Services (DSS), has invited the Chairman of the Commission, Amshi and union leaders of PASAN, National Assembly chapters to its office on Wednesday.

Although details of the invitation was still sketchy as at the time of filing in this report, it was however learnt that the invitation was at the instance of a petition written by some staff loyal to the embattled Clerk, Sani-Omolori.

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