Some of the ad-hoc staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), who worked during the November 16 governorship election in Ondo state are threatening to protest over the non-payment of their allowances.
The ad hoc staff, numbering 17,000 were trained by INEC before the election and deployed by the electoral umpire to various wards and polling units across the state.
Speaking with Tribune Online on Sunday, some of the ad-hoc staff complained over the non-payment of the allowance, three weeks after the election.
A Supervisory Presiding Officer (SPO), who spoke on condition of anonymity, alleged that INEC had earlier promised to pay them on the day of the exercise, but said INEC never fulfilled the promise.
He explained that the electoral body promised to pay them less than N20,000 for the work done on election day and said they are still waiting to receive the money from INEC.
He said they never expected the electoral body would owe them till the present, saying “They are yet to pay us our allowance. As I speak with you now.
“INEC is not speaking with us. They are not giving us listening ears at all. Many of us are affected, and they are yet to pay. It is sad that INEC has yet to fulfil its promise of paying us.
“Those attending to us at the commission’s office are refusing to listen to our plight. We are demanding the payment of our allowance, or we storm the INEC office massively starting this week,”
Another ad hoc staff accused the commission of ‘using and dumping’ them after the election and appealed to the state government and other stakeholders to prevail on INEC to pay them their allowance.
He said the affected ad-hoc staff are considering staging a peaceful protest on Tuesday to drive home their demand for the non-payment of their allowances bythe INEC office.
“I’m also ready to join the protest if we don’t receive the money before Tuesday because it’s getting late.
“It’s over two weeks since the election was conducted. They use and dump us.I feel INEC had no reason not to pay us.”
When contacted, the spokesman for INEC in Ondo state, Dr Temitope Akanmu, denied the allegation, saying the commission had commenced payment of allowance to the ad hoc staff that took part in the governorship election.
He noted that those who are yet to receive their allowance were because of the problem associated with their financial institution.
“We have paid the ad hoc staff who worked during the election. But we understand that there are some who have issues with their banks, and we are working with them to resolve whatever problem they might be experiencing.
“So, what we have is just a pocket of challenges that is common with banking errors. The few ones who are yet to receive them will get them soon I can assure them.
“Even the REC, Oluwatoyin Babalola, is mostly concerned about it, which has to deal with banking errors. She has instructed that it should be fixed,” he said.
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