News
OYO: Two months after council poll, ad hoc staff yet to receive allowances
AFTER the conduct of the local government elections held on May 12 this year, Oyo State Independent Electoral Commission (OYSIEC) is yet to pay its ad hoc staff their allowances, Mega Icon Magazine exclusively gathered
Few weeks after the poll, OYSIEC had received several awards especially for transparency and peaceful conduct of the exercise.
The success recorded by the commission in the just concluded council polls can not be attributed to Chief Ajeigbe led executive alone, as ad hoc staff who were the field officers played pivotal roles in the exercise.
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Asides playing important roles in the exercise, the ad hoc staff made a lot of sacrifice at ensuring credible local government poll.
With all these, the ad hoc staff that participated in the exercise were yet to receive their entitlements two months after the conduct of the exercise.
Unlike their federal counterpart, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) pays both training and elections’ allowances latest two to three weeks after the exercise.
But reverse is the case in Election conducted by OYSIEC as many problems characterized with the payment of the ad hoc staff allowances.
Also, investigations by Mega Icon Magazine further revealed that those served as ad hoc staff were told to bring their Biometric Verification Number (BVN) which is against the simple payment with any genuine means of identification.
According to some OYSIEC ad hoc staff, submission of BVN will not tally with the names submitted for registration, thereby called for method adopted by INEC in paying its ad hoc staff during elections.
Meanwhile, some of them see the idea of collecting their BVN as a way to deny ad hoc staff of their allowances.
It was alleged that there is no fund to pay the registered ad hoc staff hence the need for the commission to use different tactics to delay people from collecting their legitimate allowances.
Although, a stakeholders meeting was held recently at the commission’s headquarters where OYSIEC members at the local governments were told about the modality of payment.
The decision and modality to be taken by OYSIEC, according to those participated in the meeting will not go down well by many ad hoc staff.
As at press time, effort to reach the Commission’s spokesperson, Cosmos Oni proved abortive as his MTN line was not reachable. But, an inside source, who pleaded anonymity confirmed the delay in the payment of ad hoc staff, but assured that it would be resolved soon.
It was also gathered that the directive to submit their account numbers and BVN is from the governor’s office and finance commissioner to checkmate multiple payment.
Dangote Petroleum Refinery has made headlines by announcing a further reduction in the price of diesel, dropping it from ₦1200 to ₦1000 naira per litre.
The refinery’s decision comes on the heels of its recent supply at a significantly reduced price of ₦1200 per litre, which was introduced three weeks ago, signifying a remarkable 30 per cent decrease from the previous market price of approximately ₦1600 per litre.
This substantial reduction in diesel prices at Dangote Petroleum Refinery is expected to reiterate positively throughout various sectors of the economy, potentially serving as a catalyst in alleviating the persistently high inflation rate in the country.
In a statement last week, Aliko Dangote, Africa’s wealthiest individual and the owner of the refinery, expressed his optimism regarding the potential impact of the price reduction on inflation in Nigeria.
“I believe that we are on the right track. I believe Nigerians have been patient, and I also believe that a lot of goodies will now come through. There’s quite a lot of improvement because if you look at it, one of the major issues that we’ve had was the naira devaluation that has gone very aggressively up to about ₦1900,” he remarked.
As anticipation builds around the implications of this move by Dangote Petroleum Refinery, stakeholders and consumers alike remain hopeful for the positive effects it could bring to the Nigerian economy in the coming months.
More than 50,000 Russian military personnel have died during the Ukraine conflict, the BBC reported Wednesday, citing its own reporters, independent media group Mediazona and volunteers.
They found that more than 27,300 Russian soldiers died during the second year of the war, a 25-percent increase on the first year.
BBC Russian, Mediazona and volunteers have been counting deaths since February 2022, using open-source information from official reports and the media, as well as using satellite images of Russian cemeteries to estimate the number of new graves.
The figure of more than 50,000 is eight times higher than the official toll acknowledged by Moscow in September 2022. It does not include deaths of militia in Donetsk and Lugansk in eastern Ukraine.
Ukraine said in February that it had lost 31,000 soldiers, but that figure is also likely to be significantly lower than the true toll.
Russian losses spiked in January 2023 as it launched a large-scale offensive in Donetsk and again months later last year during the battle for the city of Bakhmut.
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a “special military operation” at dawn on February 24, 2022, which has since turned into a bloody and attritional war, isolating Russia from the Western world.
Responding to the report, the Kremlin said it did not disclose any information on military deaths and casualties, which falls under the remit of the defence ministry.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov added official secrets laws and those covering what Russia calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine meant it was “absolutely understandable” that the ministry did not release the figures.
The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) has disclosed that 95 million Nigerians need to enroll for the National Identification Number (NIN) to meet its target of 200 million enrollments by 2025.
Kayode Adegoke, Head of Corporate Communications at NIMC, emphasised the importance of this enrollment during an interview on X over the weekend.
He stated, “For NIMC to meet the 200 million target by 2025, 95 million Nigerians need to register for the NIN.”
Adegoke revealed that over 105 million NINs have been issued to Nigerians and legal residents so far.
He assured Nigerians of the commission’s commitment, saying, “We want to assure Nigerians that within the next one or two years, we will reach our target of enrolling all Nigerians.”
“The NIN serves as a unique identifier for each citizen and has become increasingly important for various government initiatives aimed at improving security, governance, and service delivery.”
Adegoke highlighted the efforts to streamline the modification and enrollment processes under the leadership of Abisoye Coker, the director-general of NIMC. He announced the development of a self-service platform, allowing Nigerians to make necessary modifications such as changing names, dates of birth, email addresses, and phone numbers from anywhere, using different devices.
Emphasising the convenience of the self-service modification portal, Adegoke encouraged Nigerians to utilize this innovative solution.
He noted the evolution of the process, citing the past requirement for applicants to visit NIMC offices for data corrections.
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