22nd January, 2015
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said it would require no fewer than 750, 000 ad hoc staff to conduct the general elections across the country.
Mr Kayode Idowu, Chief Press Secretary to Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), disclosed this in an interview with NAN on Wednesday in Abuja.
Idowu said that the commission was currently rounding off the recruitment of the ad hoc staff nationwide.
“Getting that number is not an easy task, but the recruitment is nearly concluded, except in isolated places where we still need to make up with the number.”
He said that applications for the recruitment were conducted via online, adding the commission also recruited former members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) who had ‘’excellent and credible records’’ in previous elections.
He explained that the resort to former NYSC members was because the corps could not provide all the needed personnel from current members in the scheme.
Idowu added that INEC was also considering recruiting third-year students of tertiary institutions to meet the needed number.
He disclosed that the training of “master trainers” among the ad hoc staff, who would train the others, had commenced.
He explained that the commission preferred NYSC members as ad hoc staff for the conduct of elections to avoid the experiences of the past where election
workers compromised.
“When civil servants were being used, the general tendency was that if you employ the service of civil servants of state government, they had their jobs to protect.
“If they are threatened, they could compromise easily, but in the case of youth corps members, they are on national duty.
“They are neither familiar with the terrain nor stakeholders in the environment they operate.
“They also have their certificates to collect and that is why their engagement is through a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with NYSC.
“If the corps members or students in the exercise compromise, sanction await them because they are still within a system and under a country,” he said.
Idowu, however, stated that no NYSC member on election duty had been sanctioned, revealing that they had so far maintained credible records.