2015 polls: Ad hoc staff lock INEC office over unpaid stipends

Awka—ABOUT 150 ad-hoc staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, during the 2015 general elections in Anambra State, yesterday, besieged the Commission’s secretariat in Awka, demanding their unpaid allowances. Some of the staff complained that while some of them received the first tranche, others had not received anything since the March 28 and April 11, 2015 elections.
After several visits to the Commission during which they were either asked to compile their names or bring their bank statements for verification and yet nothing happened, they stormed the state INEC headquarters in Awka and barricaded the gate, demanding their money.

Some of them alleged that while ad hoc staff of other states had received their money, INEC workers in Anambra State had refused to pay. There and then, they contributed money to buy padlock and chain and locked the gate, with the INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC, Mr. Edwin Nwatarali and his staff inside their offices.
Despite appeals by security operatives for them to vacate the Commission’s gate, they stood their ground, chanting war songs and using unprintable description against the Commission, which made the security operatives to release teargas canisters to disperse them. The REC could not react when he was called on phone as he said he does not speak with reporters on telephone.