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.

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.