GREEDY GLUTTON: IMO STATE LAWMAKERS DIVERTS SALARIES OF AIDES AND SPECIAL ASSISTANTS TO THEIR ACCOUNTS; PAYS THEM PEANUTS

Secret Reporters

While Senior Special Assistants and Senior Legislative Aides in Lagos State purportedly receive N300,000 per month besides the substantial amounts they receive from the legislator they assist, their counterparts in the Imo State House of Assembly are perfect fits of the song ‘suffering and smiling’ written by the legendary Fela Anikulapo Kuti.

Information made available to SecretReporters reveals that lawmakers in the Imo State House of Assembly have turned the salaries of their aides and special assistants into a cookey jar as they have been subjected to work like an elephant and eat like an ant.

A source who visited the Imo State House of Assembly revealed that junior legislative aides who were bitter about the inhumane treatment being meted on them by their principal but cannot complain for fear of losing their jobs stated that they receive a paltry N42,000 monthly as against the approved N80,000 entitled to them as salaries while senior legislative aides who are entitled to N100,000 as take-home pay are given a minute N48,000 while lawmakers pretend to be unaware of the shenanigan.

“The payment of the N48k or N42k as the case may be is just an allowance from the government to the aides while the aide salaries are built into the payment of their principal legislators”, a source opined.

Shockingly, in a clear case of ‘monkey dey work, baboon dey chop’ it was also gathered that just when legislative aides were trying to recover from the daylight robbery being carried out on them by these lawmakers, they were perplexed to discover that their November salaries were further slashed by N10,000 across board as senior legislative aides who were being paid N48,000 received N38,000 while the junior Aides who were being paid N42,000 monthly received N32,000.

Another source who spoke to our correspondents stated that “Imo state is a junkyard where there is no regard for quality. Legislators don’t realize that their backbone should be quality aides whose thinking and research should set them on high performance”.

An ally of the speaker who was quizzed to ascertain the reason for the illegal deductions opined that the Speaker of the Imo State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon Chiji Collins may not be privy of the anomaly as it would have been rectified if he were aware.

It is believed that the claim by the speaker’s ally that the Speaker of the Imo State House of Assembly is not aware of the illegal deductions as well as the actions of the lawmakers may just be a ploy to exonerate him from any wrongdoing, as insider sources revealed that salaries of aides and special assistants are paid directly by the House of Assembly; as such the illegal deductions may require his approval before it was implemented.