Corps Members Lament Non-Payment Of Allowances

Youth Corps members on national assignment in the ongoing general elections have called on the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to pay them their allowances.

This appeal was made by Miss Abiola Olukoya, a youth corps member who is clamouring for fair treatment of corps members on election duty in Lagos State, southwest Nigeria.

Olukoya spoke with P.M.NEWS at Abati Primary School, Shasha, in Egbeda/Akowonjo Local Council Development Area, LCDA of Alimosho, where she served as INEC ad-hoc staff during last Saturday’s National Assembly election. She said corps members were asked to report at Abati Primary School by an INEC official in Alimosho.

“We were told to report at Abati Primary School, Shasha, by an INEC official on the eve of the election. We all arrived here last Friday night.

“Surprisingly, on arrival, there was no security arrangement, no policemen in the premises, except a local night guard.

She said that most of them did not even take their bath because the school has no such conveniences.

While pledging their commitment in the conduct of free and fair elections, she appealed to INEC to urgently take the welfare and protection of youth corps members seriously, especially those participating in the ongoing election exercise.

P.M.NEWS gathered that INEC has approved N9,000 for corps members participating in the exercise on every election day. Another corps member at Ebenezer Primary School, Egbeda, also in Egbeda/Akowonjo LCDA, who pleaded for anonymity, stated that transportation and other logistics have been their major problems as those assigned to provide these services have either refused to do so or it is poorly done.

“Please tell them (INEC) that majority of us have been trekking to our duty posts. Did INEC not make provisions for transportation?” he asked. However when P.M.NEWS visited the INEC office yesterday, plans were underway to pay the allowances for penultimate week.

—Ufforth Shallom