By Douglas Okoro
Abakaliki, – The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Ebonyi on Thursday began a three-day training programme for ad-hoc staff for the forthcoming general elections in the state.
Prof Godswill Obioma, INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), who briefed journalists in Abakaliki after declaring open the training programme, said it was part of preparations for the general elections.
According to him, over 300 persons are participating in the training exercise designed to train Supervisory Presiding Officers (SPOs) for the forthcoming elections.
He said that the commission would require about 190 SPOs for the election, while about 40 trained ad-hoc staff would be reserved as a black-out for the 171 registration area centres or wards.
The electoral commissioner said: “We have about 300 persons we are going to train for the elections and from this number, we will pick 190 best performed trainees and we are going to keep a back-up of between 30 and 40.
“The back-up is to take care of contingencies that may arise due to ill health or that those already chosen, declined for personal or any other reasons.
“We are making sure that we proactively address situations that may impede the successful conduct of the elections in the state,’’
Obioma noted that an SPO would supervise or superintend no less than 10 polling units.
He, however, said that two SPOs would be assigned to registration area centres with more than 10 polling units.
The electoral commissioner said that the ad-hoc staff would be trained on election process, election integrity, ethical standard and process of voting.
He noted that the SPOs who are undergoing training would assist in the training of presiding and assistant presiding officers, who would work directly under their supervision.
Obioma explained that the selected SPOs were recruited from Federal Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), who are between Grade levels 10 and 14.
He noted that selection process was done through online application.
“The trainees are staff from the Federal MDAs, nominated and authenticated by their various institutions, who filled the INEC offline forms and uploaded their forms to the national online registration form for INEC.
“Already, we have a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) to use their members.
“We believe that these classes of people we are building their capacities, will give us the manpower required for the elections, ‘’ he said.
Obioma, who reiterated INEC’s commitment to credible elections in Ebonyi said that the commission had carried out extensive training for all categories of members of staff to equip them on various aspects of election management.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that presidential and National Assembly elections will hold on Feb. 16, while the Governorship and State Houses of Assembly polls will take place on March 2.