Some members of the House of Representatives have protested alleged discrimination in the allocation of offices and seats for the members.
The development comes in Abuja on Tuesday
The lawmakers, numbering about 100, who openly protested against the perceived tendencies, said the ugly trend was capable of causing setbacks in legislative activities.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the House Committee on Welfare, chairperson, Olawale Raji (APC-Lagos), was saddled with the responsibility of allocating seats for members.
The protesting members were mostly the newly elected first-timers and said the seats allocated to them at one of the temporary chambers were as unconducive as they were on the third floor.
Also, they protested against the allocation of offices to the members.
According to the list issued by the Raji-led welfare committee, 240 members were allotted for the second floor, while a few members, including some first-timers, were allocated seats on the ground floor.
Speaking on the development, the speaker called for calm while assuring that the main Reps Chamber currently under renovation would be completed before the House resumed from recess.
The house chairperson of the ad hoc committee on media, Khadijat Bukar-Ibrahim, said there was a slight uproar during the plenary session.
She said the allocation of offices is the responsibility of the welfare committee, which had actually done the work and allocated offices to every member.
“And as far as the seats are concerned, you know we are in a temporary seating area, so there are not enough seats for all members to sit downstairs. So, some have to be accommodated upstairs.
“So, there was a slight uproar, not a huge one about not hearing the mic from downstairs,” she said.
“Mr. Speaker had since directed that members should occupy any seat they find downstairs and everybody was happy,” Bukar-Ibrahim added.
