The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has assured the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members to be deployed in Saturday’s Anambra governorship election of their safety and prompt payment of election duty allowances.
INEC Chairman, Prof. Joash Amupitan, in an interview with newsmen in Awka on Wednesday, said nobody would hold back their election duty allowances.
He said that the issue of welfare and safety of the corps members serving as election ad hoc staff remained paramount to the commission and security agencies.
Amupitan described the corps members as key stakeholders working with INEC for the success of the election.
“We are doing everything to ensure that we use them in uniform so that they can distinguish them from others, and we don’t use people within who are already partisan.
“As far as their allowances are concerned, we made an agreement. Let me also say that the commission has provided everything.
“Everything that we need for this Anambra election, I think the commission has provided everything.
“If there’s anything, maybe it’s a balance of whatever, but all those things will be adequately addressed, including allowances for corpers,’’ he said.
On security arrangements for the safety of the corps members, Amupitan said the security agencies for the election under the coordination of the Nigerian Police had already assured INEC that they had been made to protect people on election duties.
“Even as we speak, some of them are already doing what we call raking the ground in various places. Some of them will not just do raking; they will do mopping later.
“So, those are various security arrangements that have been put in place to ensure the safety, not just of the voters, but of the poll officials.
“As far as the security is concerned, I believe that we have done everything within our means to ensure security everywhere,’’ he said.
Amupitan advised electoral officers in the governorship election to be neutral in discharging their electoral duties, urging them to provide a level playing ground for all the candidates and political parties.
He urged politicians to play by the rules, not to see the election as a “do-or-die’’ affair, while emphasising the need for the electorate in the state to shun vote buying.
“The electorate should come out and vote. Let us end this era of voters’ apathy. They should vote according to their conscience.
“If you are voting according to your conscience, this problem of vote-buying will not arise.
“Somebody said today, it’s not even vote-buying again. It’s vote-trading because you must sit down and negotiate and discuss.
That is where we must intensify our role in civic and voter education. They should do more and ensure that Nigerian citizens are well-educated andknow their rights.
“They know that bad leaders are elected by those who refuse to vote according to their conscience or those who allow people to superintend others on them,’’ he said.
Amupitan said that the commission, on its part, was committed to conducting the best, peaceful and highly successful election, which was probably going to be a model for other elections.
“Like I said, we can only try to do our best, but we still need the cooperation of everybody, including the media,” he said.
On the number of Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) already collected in the state, Amupitan said the collation process was ongoing, stating that the update would be made public before the election date, once concluded.
On technology deployment for the election, Amupitan said INEC had deployed more than enough Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines for 5,718 polling units where elections would take place in the state.
He said that almost 1,000 of the devices were also deployed to serve as backup in case any failed to work. (NAN)(
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