INEC ad hoc staff lament unpaid allowances in Lagos

Forum 11 months ago

INEC ad hoc staff lament unpaid allowances in Lagos

Some ad hoc staff members of the Independent National Electoral Commission in Lagos for the 2023 general elections have accused the commission of failing to remunerate them for their services.

Some of the staff members, who expressed their displeasures in a phone call with The PUNCH, lamented that had yet to receive their pay weeks after the conclusion of the general elections.

Our correspondent gathered that about 128 ad hoc staff members were affected.

Speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of being victimised, one of them told our correspondent that, “We have been to their office; they told us they were working on it and that we should update our profile. But we have not heard anything from them since then.

“We thought we were going to get paid immediately after the elections but I didn’t know it was going to be this long. If I knew, I would not have joined them.

“They told us to resend our account number on April 19, promising that we were surely going to receive the payment before the week that follows. But after almost three weeks of resending our account number, the majority of the ad hoc staff members have yet to receive the money.”

Another aggrieved ad hoc staff said, “They said we should come to fill some forms. We did. But we are yet to receive our full pay. Some people say they only received part payment while many others said they had not received anything even after the protest.”

When contacted on Wednesday, the Chief Press Secretary to INEC Chairman, Mr Rotimi Oyekan, said, “At this time, a majority of the ad hoc staff deployed for the 2023 general election, who supplied valid account details and other required information, have been paid.

“With regard to Lagos State, we discovered that a few of them provided irregular account details, thereby making the online transfer of funds to those wrong account numbers impossible.

“This is a common mistake among ad hoc staff that keeps recurring in every election, despite our repeated efforts to impress it on them to provide accurate account numbers and other details.”

The INEC spokesman, however, assured the aggrieved ad hoc staff members that the Lagos office of the commission had begun to address the matter and that they would be paid as soon as possible.