Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has dismissed speculation that the commission is indebted to corps members used as ad-hoc staff, claiming that many of them mistook the money they got somewhere as additional fund from the commission.
Dismissing the rumour that some corps members protested non-payment of honorarium in some states like Lagos during the commission’s debriefing of accredited observers for the 2019 general elections, National Commissioner, Ogumola Adekunle, insisted that some of the corps members complicated the situation by regrettably misinforming others.
“There was nothing like non-payment of the entitlement of the corps members deployed as ad-hoc staff. In Lagos, where there was speculations of corps members protesting, the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) and National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Lagos state coordinator, who addressed the issue, made it clear on live television that INEC had paid the corps members used as ad-hoc staff their full entitlements.
“I think what happened was that some of them got money somewhere and transmitted the information to some of their colleagues who felt the money was their entitlement. But it is not the business of INEC. The commission paid the entitlement of its ad-hoc staff,” he said.