INEC To Recruit 1 Million Ad Hoc Staff For 2019 Elections
*Allays Fear On Use Of Card Readers For Elections
Olufemi Samuel, Abuja
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said It would recruit not less than1million ad-hoc staff for conduct of the 2019 general elections.
The INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmud Yakub disclosed this during an interactive session with Senate Committee on INEC on Wednesday.
The Chairman, however, assured Nigerians that the major electronic device for the election, the smart card readers, will function well during the next general election since according to him, staff of the Commission would be adequately trained on usage.
He said, the 1m targeted ad-hoc staff for the election which remains 484 days from today would be about 300 higher than the over 700 ad-hoc staff engaged for the 2015 general elections.
He said,”The projected increase in the number of ad- hoc staff to be engaged in the elections by the commission arose from the need to make provisions for adequate manpower for the exercise on a general template and specifically to take care of peculiar needs for that purpose in some polling units across the federation”
On the Smart Card Readers which caused a lot of controversies during the conduct of the 2015 general elections due to malfunctioning,
Professor Yakub allayed fear over use of Smart Card Readers, noting that the controversy that trailed their use during 2015 elections would not arise in the 2019 elections.
He said solid plans had been made adequately for training of staff on use of the Card Readers ahead of the next elections.
“Controversies and challenges raised on the Smart Card Readers in the 2015 elections to us in INEC were over magnified because the problem was not technological on the part of the device but altitudinal on the part of the users due to lack of adequate training .
“Thus, because the problem is more of altitude than technological defects, solid steps are being taken by the commission to bring about robust interface between the machine and those to use them in terms of practical trainings before the elections “, he explained .
The INEC boss said Nigerians should expect an improve performance by INEC with the coming Gubernatorial elections in Anambra State next month and those of Ekiti and Osun States, given it level of preparations so far.
According to him, INEC has also been planning on how to make the five categories of disfranchised Nigerians participate in the 2019 general elections
The five categories according to him, are the 16,000 INEC staff, members of the civil society organisations who serve as election monitors and observers, the media, Security personnel and Prison inmates.
In his remarks, the Senate Committee Chairman on INEC, Senator Suleiman Nazif said the interactive session would be a continuous exercise between the committee and INEC ahead of the 2019 general elections .
