INEC Lagos denies owing adhoc staff
…says politicians behind clandestine payment causing rift
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Lagos State has denied complicity in the reason for pockets of protest by some ad hoc staff over alleged non-payment of honoraria for the February 23, Presidential and National Assembly elections.
According to reports from many parts of Lagos State, some INEC adhoc staff involved in the election had refused to be mobilised to their various unit for the election because of an alleged refusal by the electoral commission in the state to offset some outstanding allowance from the February 24 election, which was said to have accounted for the delay in the commencement of the election in many parts of the state.
The INEC spokesman in Lagos, Mr Femi Akinbiyi said that the commission it only heard about it, adding that efforts were being made to address the issue.
Akinbiyi, who noted that the alleged protest was not because of INEC non-payment of honoraria for the Presidential and National Assembly elections, but rumour that INEC was giving money to some ad hoc staff while some didn’t get.
According to him, the staff started protesting thinking that INEC was paying some people while others were not being paid.
“INEC does not pay cash to any ad hoc staff, all payment was done electronically to staff account and if anyone has not seen it, it could be bank issues.
“Ad hoc staff are entitled to have N9,000 honoraria, N3000 for movement and N1,000 for feeding allowances making 13, 000 for each election. The only time we pay cash of 4, 500 was for the training allowance.
“The money in question is that we heard that some people were distributing money from politicians to ad hoc staff. Some of the ad hoc staff got while some did not get.
“When we heard of it, we went there to investigate and found out that the money being distributed by some politicians to ad hoc staff was the cause of the wahala (problem).
“We don’t pay by cash, we paid all their money into their accounts. Some got bank alerts, some people didn’t get because they are not using the same banks, and also some banks worked halfday on Friday.
“All these issues will not allow them all to get alerts at the same time. It is not INEC money they were protesting for but the politicians’ money.
“When they (ad hoc) saw money, they thought INEC was the one distributing it. We don’t handle cash.”
Akinbiyi said that the security agents had been notified of this, assuring that the situation was being managed.
He said that the staff of the commission had been going round to appeal to them.
“They will get to the polling units very soon. We heard of pockets of this across some areas. We will settle it. Our staff and NYSC officials are going around to talk to them,” he assured.
