The staff of the National Assembly under the aegis Parliamentary Staff Association of Nigeria, PASAN, have stopped Deputy President of the Senate, Dr. Ike Ekweremadu, other  senators and members of the House of Representatives from gaining access into their chambers and offices.

PASAN took the action as they began a strike and protest over the non-payment of their N5.8 million allowances on Tuesday.

It would be recalled that the union’s Secretary-General, Suleiman Haruna, had last week announced in a statement in Abuja that the first phase of the protest would take place between Dec. 4 and Dec. 8 and that the move had become necessary following nonchalant attitude of the national assembly leadership to toward their demands.

According to the Union, all pending staff promotions and conversion letters should be released with arrears fully paid on or before Dec.31, while it had already issued a two-week ultimatum to the management to fulfill these demands or face strike.