INEC Speaks On The Outstanding Allowances Of Ad-hoc Staff

Few weeks after the general elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission has revealed that it is putting effort together to pay outstanding allowances of ad hoc workers in Enugu State.

Emeka Ononammadu, the Enugu State Resident Electoral Commissioner, stated this on Thursday in Enugu.

His statement is in reaction to the news making rounds about the protest by some INEC ad hoc staff.

Recall that some protesters who claimed to be ad hoc staff during the general elections staged a protest over the outstanding allowances.

Ononammadu, however, described the protesters as agents of those who wants to damage the image of the electoral body.

He stated that though INEC is yet to pay all ad-hoc staff an investigation into the protest has revealed that the protesters never worked during the elections.

He stated that the claims that the protesters worked during the elections were false as they are not 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.

He stated that the commission is unable to pay due to the inability of some beneficiaries to stick to their procedure of filling the required payment forms.

He stated that it is not acceptable to pay those that did not work during the general elections.

“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.