TELL Magazine

Following the last minute postponement of the presidential and National Assembly elections scheduled to hold today, February 16, 2019 by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, some ad-hoc staff of the commission in Lagos have expressed mixed reactions.

Adisa Ibrahim, an ad-hoc staff at ward 7 in Mushin Local Government Area of the state said: “I feel a bit relieved that the elections have been postponed because I have been worried about the delay and non-arrival of our supervisory presiding officer, election materials and security officials.”

But a Corp member at the same ward expressed disappointment over the postponement.  He lamented that: “I spent a lot of money to locate this centre because I was posted from Ikeja Local Government. I went through a lot of stress, and I spent so much only to get this news. I really hope we are paid our training allowance before leaving here.”

It was learnt that some ad-hoc staffs especially, National Youth Service Corp members who took part in the election training exercise at Ikeja were sent to work at Mushin, but were not assigned to polling units in the area.

Some of the staff who spoke to the magazine explained that after waiting for several hours at the INEC office in Mushin without being attended to, most of them left for their homes at about 11 pm on Friday night. 

“I have been here since 3pm and nothing meaningful has been done to provide a polling unit or ward/RAC Centre for us, I pray for a safe election for the other Corp members,” said Abisoye Shittu, a Corp member.  

Another Corp member who pleaded anonymity said: “All of us are still waiting hoping to be given a place to stay then proceed with the election exercise the next day. All efforts to speak with INEC officials at the centre proved abortive.”