CONTROVERSY TRAILS INEC AD-HOC STAFF PAYMENT, AS CORPS MEMBERS THREATEN SHOWDOWN

Controversy has continued to trail the voters' exercise in Ebonyi as corps members engaged in the exercise threatened to boycott the exercise for non-payment of their allowances. While the National Youths Service Corp (NYSC) was blaming Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the delay in payment due to the mixed up in the names of the corps members and non-corps members, the Director of NYSC in the state, Mrs. Clara Anekwe admitted that each INEC ad-hoc staff was paid N19,600 as allowance.

She added that over N19 million had so far been paid, saying the remaining, which she said was about N20 million would be paid when the money is paid into the Zenith bank dedicated account.

She alleged that some names in the list submitted by INEC were non-corps members and that money paid on their behalf were returned to the account as unclaimed.

She, however, promised that the organization was doing all it could to get the payment streamlined for easy payment

The Administrative Secretary of INEC in Ebonyi State, Mr. Peter Nwoko admitted that the commission augmented the list due to shortfall in the number of corps members, who were physically ground and prepared to work in areas they were posted.

'Some names in the list submitted by NYSC are not physically on ground and some are not computer literate and we have no alternative than to supplement them with ex-corps members from the pool and some INEC staff.'

He explained that the commission took the position to ensure that those who were working for them were those on ground, claiming that the commission had the permission to engage staff outside the corps members.

Nwoko promised to pay in more money into the NYSC dedicated account soon.