Pay Us Our Correct Allowances, INEC Ad Hoc Staff Tell Edo REC

SOME ad hoc staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), during the 2015 general elections, on Tuesday in Benin, Edo State, Have urged the agency  to pay them their correct allowances.

They ad hoc staff who protested in Benin City, the Edo State capital, accused the commission of under-payment.

The protesters, who stormed the premises of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), said they were engaged by INEC as Collation Officers, Returning Officers and Supervisory Presiding Officers and decried an alleged plan by the commission to pay them N35,000 as against the N65,000, which they said was obtainable in other states.

One of the protesters, Edegbe Uyi, said: “INEC needs to explain why it refused to credit our accounts as stipulated by law, why there are discrepancies between the amount we received as collation officers in Edo compared to those of other states.”

“It is only when that has been done that we can receive our money from INEC.

“If we don’t have explanations to these two points, we are not going to accept that money from INEC.   “So, we want this done so that Nigerians will be aware, so that Edo State people will be aware that what we are fighting for is our right.

“We cannot risk our lives to work for INEC only to be paid stipend that was less than the stipulated amount.”

In his reaction, the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Mike Igini, said that there was no contention about the payment of ad-hoc staff, as the commission already had a general guidelines on the remuneration of ad hoc personnel, a copy of which was made available to our correspondent.

Igini explained that the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Benin received the highest payment of N200,000, as the Presidential Returning Officer.

The document also showed that both the SPO’s and CO’s were to receive the sum of N35,000 each.

“The issue about payment is very clear. We have what we call the general guidelines on the payment of electoral officials and security personnel.

“So, anybody who is saying something different from what we have as our approved rate must have to find out where they are getting the extra from.”