The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has insisted it made adequate provisions to meet the welfare needs of corps members mobilised for last Saturday’s aborted elections.
It said corps members who faced welfare challenges did so because the Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) in the states were unsure if the elections would take place as earlier scheduled.
INEC said the RECs were expecting the ‘Go Ahead’ signals from the Commission’s headquarters before releasing the welfare materials procured for use by the NYSC members mobilised for the elections.
Photographs of corps members mobilised for the national duty as they slept inside vehicles, under trees, in classrooms and in open fields under unsavoury conditions have been trending on social media.
Reacting on Channels TV’s Sunrise Daily on Monday, Rotimi Oyekanmi, the Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, Prof. Yakubu Mahmood, said: “We made adequate arrangements. It’s unfortunate that we found out that some corps members slept in the open.
“We made provisions for mattresses, mats, pillows, and toiletries. In some of the areas, probably, those materials weren’t mobilised in good time to get to the corps members. There may be other issues which we don’t know yet.
“But, we are on top of the situation because when we started hearing these (negative) reports, we contacted our state offices and the issues are been addressed at the moment.
“We don’t want to put the lives or welfare of our corps members in jeopardy. I can assure you that they are very important to us. In fact, we can’t conduct elections without them. I can assure you that going forward things will improve tremendously (with their welfare),” he stressed.
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