The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will be hiring about one million ad hoc staff for the conduct of the 2019 general elections.
The chairman of the commission, Prof Mahmud Yakubu stated this on Wednesday while briefing members of the Senate committee on INEC.
Yakubu assured Nigerians that the major the electronic smart card readers will be fully deployed for the elections, stressing that enough hands would be trained on the effective use of the device.
According to him, about 700 ad hoc staff were engaged for the 2015 general elections.
He said: “The projected increase in the number of ad- hoc staff to be engaged in the elections by the commission arose from the need to make provisions for adequate manpower for the exercise on a general template and specifically to take care of peculiar needs for that purpose in some polling units across the federation”.
Assuring the lawmakers of better and effective use of the card readers, Prof Yabuku said:
“Controversies and challenges raised by the Smart Card Readers in the 2015 elections were over magnified because the problem was not technological on the part of the device but attitudinal on the part of the users due to lack of adequate training.
“Thus, because the problem is more of attitudinal than technological defects, solid steps are being taken by the commission to bring about a robust interface between the machine and those to use them in terms of practical training before the elections”.
In his remarks, the Senate Committee Chairman on INEC, Senator Suleiman Nazif said the interactive session with INEC would be a continuous exercise before the 2019 general elections