Ahead of the forthcoming general elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC, has said it would recruit about 80, 000 ad hoc staff across the country.
Nigeria’s general elections will begin on February 16th with the presidential and National Assembly elections, while the gubernatorial and State House of Assembly elections are scheduled to hold on Saturday March 2nd.
INEC recently disclosed that about 84 million voters had been registered across the six geopolitical zones in the country to take part in the general elections.
The commission’s chairman Yakubu Mahmood disclosed in an interview with BusinessDay, Tuesday that the 8,000 ad hoc staff would include members of the National Youths Service Corps (NYSC), who according to him would complement the efforts of the commission’s officials.
Mahmood who spoke through his Chief Press Secretary, Rotimi Oyekanmi, said that the commission decided to recruit more personnel because the number of NYSC members across the country was insufficient for the general elections.
“If we have enough NYSC members we would not need to go and recruit people for the elections,” Oyekanmi said.
Meanwhile in Lagos State, the commission says it has commenced the training of ad hoc staff for the elections.
Public relation Officer (PRO) for INEC in the state, Femi Akinbiyi, disclosed in an interview Tuesday that the commission would select the number of ad hoc staff it needs after the training.
Akinbiyi further reaffirmed the commission’s readiness to conduct free and fair elections.
“We have commenced the training of ad hoc staff for the general elections in Lagos State, what we are doing is that after the training we would select those we want from the people we are training.”
Iniobong Iwok
