Taiwo Popoola
The ad-hoc staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, who participated in the November 16 governorship election in Ondo State, at the weekend cried out over the delay in the payment of their stipends.
While threatening to protest over the development, some of the 17,000 ad-hoc staff lamented that weeks after the election, they were yet to receive any payment.
The aggrieved ad-hoc staff, who pleaded anonymity, informed journalists in Akure, Ondo State capital, that they never expected that the payment would be delayed for long despite assurances that it would be received an hour after the election.
One of them, who served as a Supervisory Presiding Officer (SPO), said: “They are yet to pay us our allowance. INEC is not speaking with us.
“They are not giving us listening ears at all. Many of us are affected, and they are yet to pay. Those attending to us at the Commission’s office are refusing to listen to our plight.”
“We are demanding the payment of our allowance, or we storm the INEC office massively starting this week,” the female ad-hoc staff threatened.
They appealed to Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa and other stakeholders to prevail on INEC to do the needful due to the biting economic situation.
However, the Public Relations Officer, PRO, of INEC in the state, Temitope Akanmu, denied the allegation.
He stated that the Commission had paid the allowances to the ad-hoc staff.
According to the Ondo INEC spokesman, those who were yet to receive their allowance have issues with their financial institutions.
