There was pandemonium at INEC Collection Centre, Muslim Secondary School, Egbe, Ikotun, Lagos on Saturday morning when some INEC ad-hoc staff refused to collect election materials for the Governorship and Assembly Election or proceed to their polling units.
The ad-hoc staff complained their money for working during the March 11 Presidential and National Assembly Election had not been paid, insisting there is foul play as some others had been paid.
They accused Mrs Joy, the head of operations at the centre, of holding onto their money and vehemently refused to budge unless their money was paid.
However, Mrs Joy denied all allegations, stating that she is not INEC or the Central Bank of Nigeria that is disbursing the money.
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“I have explained to them that the money does not come from my personal account. Many of them have been paid, except for a few, and this is due to the transfer delay.
”The banks mainly affected are GT Bank and Access Bank and I have pleaded with them to understand and that all monies will be compiled and paid into their accounts after today’s exercise. We all know the difficulties involved in transferring money in this country at the moment.”
Some of the irate ad-hoc staff however rejected her explanation, insisting that some of them do not use the two banks and yet had not been paid.
One of them, Bamidele Tiamiyu, said she uses UBA bank account and yet had not been paid. She also said she knew of several others using other bank accounts who had not been paid.
Some of the ad-hoc staff also complained of understaffing at the polling units.
One of them, who refused to give her name said “When we were undergoing training for the exercise, they told us we would be four at each polling unit, but on the election day we were three, which made the workload heavy and cumbersome.”
Another complained that for today’s exercise, only two people were assigned to his unit and wondered how two people would do four people’s jobs effectively.
”A good number of those who have received their payment, however, also complained that they were told at the initial stage that they would be paid N17,00 but were eventually paid N13,000 for the last exercise.
“I hope they are not cutting our money to enrich themselves,” she said.
Further investigation by The Nation revealed that this is the case with several other centres.
