The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says it is working hard to pay outstanding allowances of ad hoc workers deployed for the 2019 general elections in Enugu State.
The Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in the state, Mr Emeka Ononammadu, made the disclosure on Thursday in Enugu.
He spoke to newsmen against the backdrop of a protest by some INEC ad hoc staff.
It will be recalled that some protesters, who claimed to have been deployed as ad hoc staff during the polls staged a protest over non-payment of their entitlements.
Ononammadu, however, described the protesters as agents of those who wanted to tarnish the reputation of the electoral umpire.
He said that although INEC had yet to complete payment of all ad-hoc staff posted for the exercise, an investigation by INEC officers had revealed that the protesters never worked during the elections.
He said that the claims that the protesters were posted for the elections were false as they were neither corps members nor federal civil servants or students of federal tertiary institutions.
“I strongly suspect that the protesters are hired by those who want to rubbish our excellent performance and put pressure on us to pay the wrong persons.
“As at the time of their gathering, INEC has almost completed the payment of ad-hoc staff. What is left is the handling of those whose bank account details are not correct.
“Since four weeks, we have made telephone calls to 4,000 ad-hoc staff to get their correct bank details,” he said.
The REC said that the challenges INEC had in completing the payments were as a result of the inability of some beneficiaries to stick to their procedure of filling the required payment forms.
Ononammadu said it was unacceptable to pay those who did not work during the polls.
“The police and other security agencies in Enugu State were proactive by engaging the leadership of the protesters, who could not even ascertain the polling units where they worked.
“After our painstaking verification, we found many names in a payment proposed list that neither worked anywhere posted by INEC.
“We will commence investigation to unravel how their names got into our system and who is responsible,” Ononammadu said.
