Five months after the presidential election, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) still owes some members of its ad hoc staff in Oyo State.

A polling officer (PO) during the February 25 presidential election, who does not wish to be named, told EQToday that he had not received his stipend.

The PO said he worked in one of the wards in the Akinyele Local Government Area of Ibadan, the capital of Oyo State.

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He said that INEC was meant to pay a stipend of N14,500 for working during the presidential election but he found that some individuals received N9,000 instead.

In addition to the stipend, the ad hoc staff members were also entitled to N3,000 feeding allowance on the day of the election. This ad hoc staff member said he got the feeding allowance two weeks after the election.

“They said they would pay the remaining N14,500 to my bank account afterwards, but they haven’t done that,” he told EQToday.

“I would have overlooked the money, but with the stress I endured during that period, I can’t. On the eve of the election, I slept at the RAC centre, exposed to cold and mosquito bites.”

According to the former presiding officer, some of the other workers got full payment two weeks after the presidential election, and when he complained about this, someone told him it was because he had dropped an OPay account number.

“But I later got to know that some ad hoc staff, who dropped accounts like OPay, were paid, so I wonder why mine was different,” he said.

“I called the supervising presiding officer (SPO) for my polling unit, who asked me to submit a normal bank account and my statement of account. I submitted the requested details in March, but I got nothing.

“Many other ad hoc staff in Akinyele LGA are yet to get payment. I even escalated the issue to INEC but got no response from them.

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“I don’t want this situation to continue like this. They have been giving stories and counter-stories for the delay, yet a few of us have not been paid. We think they have embezzled our stipend.”

When EQToday called the SPO of the PO’s unit, he said INEC was not to blame for the delay because the ad hoc staff were instructed to submit traditional bank accounts instead of digital accounts.

According to the SPO, the reason for this was that INEC often encountered difficulties with those digital banks.

In response to the way out for the affected workers who have sent the required bank account numbers, he said, “It is not an easy task, but I can assure you that many people have already been paid.”

“The money has been transferred to the initial accounts they submitted, but the money must have been stuck somewhere. Once the accounts are reviewed, the money would be credited back to INEC’s account before it is resent to the new bank account.”

Festus Okoye, INEC’s spokesperson, could not be reached for comments as his number was busy when EQToday called it on Thursday. He had also not responded to the message sent to him at press time.
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