The Independent National Electoral Commission Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) for Ondo State, Barrister Oluwatoyin Babalola, has assured the new NYSC Coordinator that the Commission will continue to improve on service delivery to corps members.
Speaking at the INEC State office in Akure, the state capital, the Resident Electoral Commissioner disclosed that members of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) and Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria (RTEAN) were being engaged to provide seamless transportation facility to corps members throughout the period of election.
According to the INEC boss, the management of the Commission was leaving no stone unturned to ensure that members of the service corps engaged for electoral duties are not stranded throughout the period of their engagement.
Babalola also asserted that corps members’ welfare, especially provision of adequate security, has remained the priority of the electoral umpire.
She intimated the new NYSC boss and her management team that adequate arrangements in conjunction with all security agencies and paramilitary organisations had been put in place within and around Registration Area Centres to ensure adequate safety while challenges usually faced by corps members in terms of mobility to and from the RACs have also been addressed.
The REC averred that challenges associated with payment of corps members’ allowance during the training and after the elections are usually caused by corps participants themselves as they either give incorrect bank account details or not supplying details domiciled with the NYSC.
The INEC Chief Electoral Officer in Ondo, the Sunshine State, while praising the Scheme for providing young and capable personnel to serve as Presiding Officers, appealed to NYSC management to keep on talking to the corps members not to engage in any act inimical to the success of the election, while promising that no corps member would be deployed to coastal or volatile areas.
She thanked the operators of the Scheme in Ondo State for availing the Commission to meet with the corps members at their various Community Development Service (CDS) groups, a move she described as helpful to the Commission’s planning and preparation.
Babalola, while wishing the Coordinator a peaceful and fruitful tenure of office, therefore, advised the corps members to be meticulous and not be in a hurry when supplying the details, which she described as sensitive and classified to the Commission, in order not to experience unnecessary delay during payments.
Speaking earlier, the new NYSC Ondo State Coordinator, Mrs. Kuburat Omowumi Bakare assured INEC that corps members, in line with the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), entered into with the Commission were ready to participate in the forthcoming gubernatorial election.
The State Coordinator, however, said that participation of these patriotic Nigerians is dependent on the provision of adequate security and broad-based safety and welfare by the Commission.
Bakare reiterated the position of the NYSC management against posting of corps members to coastal and riverine areas, the stand which she said was sacrosanct and not open to any debate.
She, however, clarified the position of the Scheme, saying that those who are already serving in those communities and are willing to participate in the election will be allowed to do so but those who are serving in the hinterlands would not be allowed for whatever reasons to cross over the water.
She requested to know the roles expected of her officers and the timetable for both the training and the election ahead of time so that NYSC in the state will integrate it into the activities of the Scheme.
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