OYSIEC: Ad-hoc Staff Lament Continuous Delay In Payment Of Allowance, Seek Gov. Makinde’s Intervention
Barely three weeks after Local Government election was held in the 33 Local Government areas of the state, the ad-hoc staff recruited for the smooth conduct of the election on Tuesday lamented continuous delay in payment of their allowance by the Oyo State Independent Electoral Commission (OYSIEC).
OYSIEC conducted the local government elections across the state on April 27, 2024.
Before the poll, the Commission had recruited over 1 thousand ad-hoc staff, in the following categories: Assistant Presiding Officers (APO), Presiding Officers (PO) and Supervisors (SU).
Others are Ward Collation Officers (WCO), LGA Returning Officers (RO), Assistant Electoral Officers (AEO) and Electoral Officers (EO).
According to a report, the commission recruited the ad-hoc staff to assist its workforce in conducting free and fair elections, but unable to set out a certain amount to be paid as allowance to the recruited ad-hoc staff.
One of the recruited ad-hoc staff who pleaded anonymous said after the one-day exercise, OYSIEC is yet to reward them.
The ad-hoc staff who served as a presiding officer in one of the polling units in Ward 11, Orisunmibare Adabi, Egbeda Local Government area of the state, expressed her grievances over the development.
She told Westerndailes on Monday evening that, every ad-hoc Staff employed for the election has not been paid till date.
According to her, allowances for both the training and the election proper has not been paid 18 days after the conduct of the elections.
“We went for training and we were engaged for the local government election on Saturday, April 27. The commission promised us that the money would be paid into our various bank account two days after election which was Monday April 29th, but we are yet to see alert as promised.
“We heard that, the state governor, Engr. Seyi Makinde had provided enough funds to cover the allowance of all ad-hoc staff engaged for the April 27 Local Government election but some people that be in the commission are still holding on to our money.
“To us, with the fund provided by the governor, there is no reason the commission should be owing the hired ad-hoc staff as of today.” he said.
Another Ad-hoc in Ido Local Government who craves anonymity said, he attended the election training as well as the election proper but yet to get paid.
The staff further said he slept over inside the council secretariat in Ido as recommended by his electoral officer so as to meet up for the collection of electoral materials on Saturday morning but his efforts were not rewarded.
” We were all legitimately engaged by OYSIEC. We performed all our duties satisfactorily but we were not paid. The Electoral officer promised us that we would be paid the following Monday, which is the 29th of April but they failed to fulfil their promise. Even if they are not willing to pay for the training, I think, the election payment shouldn’t be delayed.
Another Ad-hoc Staff who doesn’t want her name to be in print told our correspondent that one of the people who commented on a WhatsApp platform created for ad-hoc staff in Ibadan North Local Government was filled with complaints over delay in payment of allowance by OYSIEC.
She said many are afraid to come out and complain about the development, thinking that the allowance would not be paid due to the insincerity of the officers engaged to lead various wards.
According to the lady who also served as Presiding Officer at one of the polling units; “after the election of the day, a few of them were given N5,000 ( thousand naira ) for transport while many who also worked with them were not given. She said it was during their discussion on the Whatsapp group the following day that many got to know that they were entitled to a token for the job.
“Some Ad-hoc Staff were given N5,000 on Saturday evening after we finished the collation of results and submitted the election materials to them, but many were not given. In fact, some of us received a call the following day and were asked to send account details. According to reports, their local government heads credited them with just N2,500. Why the money was given was not stated, but it was rumored that one political party gave them as gratification.
In a swift reaction, the Public Relations Officer in OYSIEC, Mr. Adegoke Damola told Westerndailes on the telephone that the commission is in the process of crediting all the hired staff.
“OYSIEC is going to pay officially hired staff. I guess they misunderstood their local government electoral officers. They were told they would submit their bank details to the commission at the state office for process on Monday not that they would start getting credit alerts from that Monday.
” The payment is a process, and we have begun the process. Soon all submitted bank accounts will be credited,” Damola said.
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