Ekiti – The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has cautioned corps members to be deployed as adhoc staff in the forthcoming June 18 Ekiti State governorship election against corrupt and unethical practices.
Dr. Adeniran Tella, INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner in Ekiti state gave the advice at the sensitisation programme for Corps members at NYSC Orientation Camp in the state.
Tella, who was represented by the INEC Administrative Secretary in Ekiti State, Mrs Feyi Saseyi, urged corps members, to be deployed as Presiding Officers (POs) and Assistant Presiding Officers (APOs) to treat all voters equally and with respect.
“Remember to treat all voters equally and with respect. Also remember that unethical and corrupt practices by election officials attract severe punishment under the law,” Tella said.
According to him, because corps members are usually deployed as Presiding Officer (PO) and Assistant Presiding Officer 1(APO1) in elections, there is a need to prepare them ahead of the three days training to intimate them with the new technology Bimodal Voter Authentication system (BVAS) and other requirements in the election process.
“The root training which is a weekly modular-based exercise and comes up at each Local Government Areas on the Community Development Services (CDS) days will last for a period of five weeks, ” Tella said.
He said that both INEC and NYSC had invested in comprehensive training of corps members to adequately prepare them for the task ahead.
The INEC boss said that the training had become imperative due to some experiences in the previous elections where poll officials displayed flagrant mediocrity as a result of inadequate training.
According to him, to correct this senario, the commission has come up with the concept of “Root Training” which is comprehensive and Continuous training of members of NYSC on the electoral process.
On professional ethics of officials on election day, the REC urged the corps members to discharge their duties in a courteous and polite manner.
According to him, the Ekiti State governorship and the Ekiti East State Constituency 1 elections slated for June 18 would be conducted in line with the new Electoral Act 2022(as amended) and also in substantial adherence to the COVID-19 protocol.
He said that INEC’s polling unit had been redesigned to achieve this.
“In the light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Polling Unit layout has been redesigned by the commission to ensure substantial compliance with the protocols established by health authorities.
“Social distancing, general hygienic conduct and enforcement of COVID-19 prevention protocol have been emphasised in the redesign,” he said.
According to him, there will be a two-tier queuing system at the polling unit-one outside and the other in the voting area.
“Voter will be brought into the voting area periodically to prevent overcrowding. Tags and twines may be used to ensure crowd control and maintenance of social distance.
“In order to accommodate additional activities in setting up the polling unit due to COVID-19, polls shall now commence at 8:30 am and close at 2:30 pm.
“Anybody on the outer queue by 2:30pm shall be allowed to vote in line with the Commission’s regulations,” Tella added.
He assured that the corps members, during the election, were entitled to training allowance, feeding allowance, transport allowance, honoraria and security.
