INEC to recruit one million ad hoc staff for 2019 polls

• IGP involves all police commands in Anambra election
• Commission registers 2,188,171 voters

Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Mahmud Yakub, yesterday told the Senate that it would deploy not less than 1 million ad-hoc staff for the 2019 general elections.

Yakub, who made the declaration at an interactive session with the Senate Committee on INEC, assured Nigerians that the electronic device for the election, the smart card readers, would function well as users would be adequately trained on its usage before the election.

He said the target of one million ad-hoc staff for the election, which is 484 days away would be about 300 higher than the over 700,000 ad-hoc staff engaged for the 2015 general elections.

“The projected increase in the number of ad- hoc staff to be engaged in the elections arose from the need for adequate manpower for the exercise on a general template and specifically to take care of peculiar needs in some polling units across the country,” he said.

On the smart card readers, which caused a lot of controversy during the 2015 general elections due to malfunctioning, he said such controversies would not arise in the 2019 polls based on solid plans for adequate training for those who will conduct the election.

He added that the November 18 governorship election in Anambra State and those of Ekiti and Osun states next year, would show Nigerians how prepared the commission was for the 2019 general elections.

Speaking, Chairman, Senate Committee on INEC, Suleiman Nazif, said the interactive session would be a continuous exercise between the committee and INEC ahead of the 2019 polls.

In a related development, the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris, yesterday said all police commands across the country would be involved to provide security in the Anambra governorship election. 

Idris, who described the poll as a great challenge to the Police, noted that personnel of the service would be fully mobilised from not less than 15 units across the country to man the election.

This came as he directed state commissioners of Police to immediately assess the deployment of police personnel attached to very important persons (VIPs) with a view to withdrawing those deployed illegally. 

Meanwhile, INEC has said that 2,158,171 eligible voters were registered to participate in the Anambra governorship election.

Representative of INEC’s ICT Director, Bimbo Oladunjoye, disclosed this in Awka during the publication and presentation of Register of Voters (RV) to candidates of political parties in Awka.

Giving further details, Oladunjoye said 50.3 per cent of the registered voters were females, while 49.6 per cent were males, adding that the largest number of the captured voters were students.