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Several adhoc staff trained by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), besieged the Abuja Municipal Area Council INEC office on Saturday to register their displeasure, after they were trained and later dumped.
It was gathered that the adhoc staff, mainly from the University of Abuja, had undergone the mandatory two days training as Collation Officers.
When BusinessDay visited the AMAC office on Saturday, many of the adhoc staff were seen hanging around, hopeful that they will be picked for the job as of 12.30pm.
Augustine Emmanuel and Mohammed Gimba, who spoke for his colleagues expressed disappointments that despite assurances, INEC officials dumped those who were trained and opted to use those who were not part of the training.
“Many of us are P.hD holders, some, like myself and these other colleagues cane from the University of Abuja. We were less than 90 that came for the Collation Officers training, but the list we saw there now, shows close to one thousand.
Asked if INEC gave them reasons for dropping them, Gimba said no reasons were given
“The elections will soon end, when are they going to answer us. They have ended up selecting those who did not participate in the training” he lamented
However, Samuel Bassey, the head of department, voters education and publicity, FCT INEC, absolved the organisation from any blame.
According to him, “It is not everybody trained by INEC that can be engaged”.
Speaking further on the election, Bassey described it as ” generally peaceful”, even as he admitted lapses in the areas of early deployment of election materials.
” We had some logistics issues which were quickly resolved ” he said.
He admitted that the election experienced a low turn out of voters, especially at the city center, in Abuja
Also speaking on the election, Party agents at some of the polling units visited lamented that low turn out took shine off the election, the All Progressive Congress APC Agent at the polling unit PU 603, City Center, Abuja, Chris Obi, however expressed satisfaction with the conduct of the election, despite the low turn out. (BusinessDay)
