Insecurity: Stakeholders ask INEC to recruit locals as ad hoc staff

Stakeholders yesterday tasked the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to recruit locals as ad hoc staff for this year’s general elections instead of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members.

The Team Leader, EU-SDGN, Rudolf Elbling, who said this at the European Union (EU) Support to Democratic Governance in Nigeria (EU-SDGN) Programme Publication Series 2 seminar in Abuja, insisted that corps members should not be deployed. 

“INEC should recruit locals as ad hoc staff electoral officers instead of non-residents of the state. The usual norm of deploying National Youth Service Corps members may portend more danger in the 2023 election.

“It is therefore recommended that INEC should recruit staff who will use local offices from the communities, for instance in Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna, Niger and Sokoto, communities have been in dialogue with armed groups,” he said.