Nasarawa: Anxiety Mounts As INEC Fails To Present Names Of Corps Members For Election Duty

LAFIA – Stakeholders are worried in Nasarawa State as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), failed to release names and numbers of corps members to be engaged as ad-hoc staff for the 2019 general election in the state.

Saturday INDEPENDENT gathered that the tension built barely two days before the Presidential and National Assembly elections as the identity of the corps members are yet to be disclosed.

In an interview with state coordinator NYSC, Hajiya Zainab Isah said that out of the 8,460 corps members in the state, over 5,000 had indicated interest to be engaged as INEC ad-hoc staff for the poll.

She said: “Honestly speaking, I want to be very truthful to you up to this moment; I have not been given the actual number that INEC has taken.

“They have not told me up to this moment, but I know that over 5,000 members have indicated interest to participate in the job. I’m yet to ascertain how many corps members INEC picked and how many were dropped.

“We are still expecting the list from them. You know it is not my fault and I cannot compel them to give the list but we still expect to hear from them,” she said.

However, residents have expressed worry over the development and called on INEC to stop playing politics with the security of corps members and tell the world the number of corps members to be engaged, where they will be deployed and how they will be protected during the polls.

Reacting to the development, some political observers in the state are of the opinion that INEC action is a desperate plan to connive with the ruling government to used government agents to rig election in favour of the ruling party in the state.

Efforts to speak with resident electoral commission Public Relations Officer or the Resident Electoral Commissioner Abdulrahman Ajidagba proved abortive as he said that he was busy in the office.





INDEPENDENT