The National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, in Anambra has directed corps members on electoral duties during the 2019 general elections yet to receive their allowance to forward their names to its secretariat.
Coordinator of the scheme in the state, Mr. Kehinde Aremu, who gave the directive while addressing some corps members in Awka on Tuesday said it became necessary to do so following a letter from INEC, Anambra office, which claimed that the commission had paid all corps members who worked as ad-hoc staff during the elections.
Aremu who disclosed that the payment issue had caused friction between officials of the agencies in the state, blamed Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC’s insistence on deploying the Corpers to polling units rather than allowing the managers of the scheme to do so.
Recall that INEC engaged corps members as ad-hoc staff during the Feb. 23 and March 9 general elections.
However, while INEC claimed it paid all the corpers it deployed, many of them insisted they were yet to be paid leading to a protest at the INEC Headquarters in Awka recently by some of the corpers.
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“You were trained by them, deployed by them, but let me assure you, I will never be part of the plot to defraud you.
“I know many of you were not paid and based on that, I have written to INEC again and again but they have replied me with a stinker, saying I am blackmailing INEC.
“In their letter to me, INEC said they have paid all of you who worked as ad-hoc staff during the elections,” he said.
The coordinator said he had received the list of those affected in four out of the 21 local government areas in the state and urged the NYSC Local Government Inspectors in the remaining areas to forward the list of those affected in their areas.
He however, warned corps members who were deployed but did not report to the polling units or substituted with other persons not to embarrass themselves and the NYSC by submitting their names.
