The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says it is
working hard to pay outstanding allowances of ad hoc workers deployed
for the 2019 general elections in Enugu State.
The Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in the state, Mr Emeka
Ononammadu, made the disclosure on Thursday in Enugu, NAN reports.
He spoke to newsmen against the backdrop of a protest by some INEC ad hoc staff.
It will be recalled that some protesters, who claimed to have been
deployed as ad hoc staff during the polls staged a protest over
non-payment of their entitlements.
Ononammadu, however, described the protesters as agents of those who wanted to tarnish the reputation of the electoral umpire.
He said that although INEC had yet to complete payment of all ad-hoc
staff posted for the exercise, an investigation by INEC officers had
revealed that the protesters never worked during the elections.
He said that the claims that the protesters were posted for the
elections were false as they were neither corps members nor federal
civil servants or students of federal tertiary institutions.
“I strongly suspect that the protesters are hired by those who want
to rubbish our excellent performance and put pressure on us to pay the
wrong persons.
“As at the time of their gathering, INEC has almost completed the
payment of ad-hoc staff. What is left is the handling of those whose
bank account details are not correct.
“Since four weeks, we have made telephone calls to 4,000 ad-hoc staff to get their correct bank details,” he said.
The REC said that the challenges INEC had in completing the payments
were as a result of the inability of some beneficiaries to stick to
their procedure of filling the required payment forms.
Ononammadu said it was unacceptable to pay those who did not work during the polls.
“The police and other security agencies in Enugu State were proactive
by engaging the leadership of the protesters, who could not even
ascertain the polling units where they worked.
“After our painstaking verification, we found many names in a payment proposed list that neither worked anywhere posted by INEC.
“We will commence investigation to unravel how their names got into our system and who is responsible,” Ononammadu said.
