Sola Ojo, Kaduna
About 7,802 out of a total of 8,900 corps members currently serving in Kaduna State are expected to serve as ad-hoc staff of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) during the coming elections in Kaduna State.
Already, the NYSC has stopped posting corps members to volatile areas include Birni Gwari and Kajuru local government areas of the state due to security concerns.
But, the INEC said in Kaduna that corps members would be posted to all the 23 local government areas including Birni Gwari and Kasuwan Magani in Kajuru with the deployment of security agents to give them cover during the exercise.
Public Relations Officer, INEC, Kaduna office, Sani A Abdulfatah, said that the corps members had already commenced a staggered training across the selected centres in the state.
“What I know is that every corps member serving in Kaduna will participate except those that are sick or not interested in the exercise.
“The four-week training is going to end next week Thursday. The training is been staggered in order to accommodate as many as wish to participate in the elections taking place in selected centres across the state.
“We just ended Inter-agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES) meeting of security chiefs in Kaduna; NYSC, NSCDC, Army, Police and others who met and decided to have maximum security in trouble spots like Birni Gwari and Kasuwan Magani in Kajuru local government areas.
“About 537 election supervisors were trained for three days between Wednesday and Friday last week. Their training took place at the Civil Engineering Department, Kaduna Polytechnic, Tudun Wada,” he explained.