Anambra Senator Wants INEC to Hire More Permanent Workers

The Senator for Anambra Central, Victor Umeh, has called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to hire and train more permanent staff for electoral duties. He wants INEC to reduce its reliance on temporary workers as the 2027 general elections approach.

Umeh, who is running for re-election with the Nigeria Democratic Congress, made this plea on Friday during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today.

He pointed out that moving electoral workers from one state to another at the request of authorities can damage public trust in the electoral system.

“So if you continue to move electoral personnel from one state to another place on the request of authorities, that type of juggling erodes confidence. You cannot be doing such a thing,” Umeh said.

He claimed that during elections, there are times when ad hoc staff are deployed to serve the interests of some powerful individuals in different places.

“No, it has happened even before,” he said when asked about these alleged movements.

“Yes, there are movements. If you put your ears on the ground, you know, you see, because I have been part of this process for a lot of time, for a long time now. I know that when election comes, efforts are made to put ad hoc staff that will serve the purpose of certain powerful people in various locations. And there are people who do this. We have warned consistently.”

INEC has a core of permanent staff but also relies on temporary workers. These temporary staff are recruited, trained, and assigned for specific elections, then released after the elections.

Ad hoc workers take on various roles, such as Presiding Officers and Assistant Presiding Officers at polling units, Supervisory Presiding Officers overseeing clusters of polling units, and Registration Area Centre managers.

Umeh praised INEC for its current recruitment drive. He urged the commission to use this chance to boost its permanent staff and lessen its reliance on temporary workers.

“I’m happy that INEC is doing recruitment now. INEC should be able to recruit people and find a way to do away with ad hoc staff,” he said.

He described ad hoc workers as temporary staff who leave after elections. He believes that permanent INEC staff would be more responsible and better trained for electoral tasks.

“An ad hoc staff is a temporary staff. He comes on duty, does what he wants to do, makes money, and goes away. But officers of the commission, if they are able to have enough manpower, because we have appropriated a lot of money for the commission, they should be able to increase their manpower, you know.

“And at this time, employ a lot of people and train them, so that at least at the collation level, it will not be going to tertiary institutions to bring university professors to come and do collation and become returning officers.”

Umeh insisted that INEC should have its own trained staff as collation and returning officers. This way, the responsibility for the electoral process would stay within the commission.

“INEC should be able to have its own trained personnel to be collation officers and be returning officers, so that anything that happens starts and ends with INEC. Not going to one university, go to University of Sokoto, bring the professor from there, put him in Anambra State to be returning officer,” he said.