CRISIS: Aides of Senators, Reps dare N’Assembly Clerk over poll

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. File: National Assembly Complex 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.”