The acting Director General (DG) of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Mrs Christy Ubah, has appealed that the allowances of corps members who will serve as ad hoc staff of inec in the forthcoming elections be improved due to the economic hardship in the country.
Speaking Friday in Abuja when INEC’s Chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, visited her, Mrs Uba said it had become necessary to look into improving the allowances of corps members as the current allowances could not cater for them in view of economic realities.
She said that in its effort to ensure more corps members participated in the election process, the scheme had concluded plans to resume orientation camp for Batch A Stream 1 in January, noting that the commission should leverage the orientation course to sensitise the corps members on their roles during the elections.
Ubah noted that as a scheme they had directed state coordinators to encourage as many corps members as possible to register on the INEC portal as ad hoc staff for the elections and participate as well, adding that the scheme had gone ahead to sensitise the corps members that their security was being taken care of already.
On his part, Prof Yakubu said that without the corps members, it would be difficult to conduct elections in the country.
He said it was necessary to involve the corps members in the conduct of elections as the commission had introduced technology in the conduct of elections which would demand educated and tech-savvy people to handle.
He noted that corps members operated the most critical parts of the elections, which was conducting the voting process at the polling units, collation of results, as well as transmission of results.
He said due to the involvement of NYSC in the conduct of elections in the country, the commission had included them in the inter-agency consultative committee on election security at the state level where the state coordinators would work together with state Commissioners of Police to achieve a smooth process.
On the security of corps members, he said the commission would extend security to the lodges of the corps members involved in the election process while they were on the field working so that they would be safe when they returned.
He added that the commission had also provided insurance cover for the corps members deployed on election duty.
