Rose Ejembi, Makurdi
Hundreds of ad-hoc staff posted to Ushongo Local Government Area of Benue on Saturday morning staged a protest demanding payment of their transport allowance by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The ad-hoc staff who besieged the INEC office as early as 8am in the morning lamented that they were not given transport fare as well as other allowances they were promised, adding that most of them had to sleep in the open throughout the night.
Our correspondent gathered that when their demand was not being attended to, the protesting ad-hoc staff took to the streets, blocked the entrance to the INEC office and were preparing grounds to start burning tyre before the security operators arrived at the scene.
Some of the affected persons who spoke on the condition of anonymity expressed disappointment in the whole process, saying that even money that was supposed to be released to them was not given.
However, some of the INEC staff who didn’t want their names in print said all they asked from the ad-hoc staff was that they should provide their identity cards and or their permanent voter cards (PVCs) before they could be attended to.
After the intervention of the JTF, the INEC agreed to pay the ad-hoc staff with any other means of identification aside the two earlier demanded.
As at the time of filing this report, calm had returned to the area as the INEC officials had commenced payment of the said allowances to the ad-hoc staff.