Fred Itua, Abuja

National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members and Nigerians who worked as adhoc staff during the 2019 elections, yesterday, protested the non-payment of their allowances by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

National President of Taxpayers Association of Nigeria (TAPAN), Obinna Okafor, who spoke on behalf of over 500,000 of the aggrieved staff lamented the failure of INEC to offset the debts, 10 months after conclusion of elections.

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He said the adhoc staff were demanding for the payment of N15,000 allowance to each of them for the conduct of the poll, and  N8,000 as stipend for pre-election training. They estimated the total amount owed them at N10 billion.

“In the buildup to the 2019  elections in Nigeria, INEC whose function it is, as an electoral umpire to conduct elections, recruited ad-hoc staff that will help in the  election. The ad-hoc staff  were to man all polling units across the country for the presidential and national assembly elections. The ad-hoc staff included ex-corps and serving corps members.

“There are 119, 973 polling units in the country and each unit was to be manned by one serving corp member and three ex-corps members. On the whole, four people will man each polling units totalling the ad-hoc staff for the exercise to be 479,892. INEC organised a training for all the ad-hoc staff and there were entitled to N8,000.”