The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, on Friday commenced training of 35,000 ad-hoc staff in Kaduna State, ahead of the February and March general elections.
The INEC’s Commissioner for North West Zone, Prof. Anthonia Sinbene disclosed this at the flag-off of the training expected to last for three days across the 23 Local Government Areas of the State.
The News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, reports that the training is coming two weeks to the Feb. 16 Presidential and National Assembly polls.
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Sinbene said the ad-hoc staff would take charge of some key areas of the electoral process to ensure smooth conduct of polls in 5, 102 polling units across 255 wards of the 23 LGAs in the state.
The Commissioner, who said she was satisfied with the arrangement for the training, however, expressed worry over the large turnout of youth who either did not apply for the job or not invited for the training.
She said the Commission would strictly follow the list of those it invited through their mobile Short Message Service, SMS, those who applied in persons, and those with printout slips from online applications.
“Our visit to the training centers in Kaduna North and South Local Government areas showed large turnout of applicants,“she said.
According to her, the ad-hoc staff will go make the commission’s job easier, but expressed concern that the venues for the training were too congested.
The Commissioner, therefore, directed that some of the applicants be moved to other venues to decongest the present training centres.
NAN learnt that the commission requires 33, 200 ad-hoc staff for the polls, but is recruiting 35,000, to fill up gaps in case some of those trained failed to turn up for election duty.
NAN
