NYSC members threaten boycott

The ongoing voter registration may suffer setbacks in some parts of Lagos State as National Youth Service Corps members engaged by the Independent National Electoral Commission threatened on Sunday to boycott the exercise on Monday (today).

The News Agency of Nigeria reports on Sunday in Lagos that the planned action was to press home the demand of the corps members for the payment of their allowances.

In Akure, Ondo State, corps members participating in the exercise boycotted work last Wednesday to press for the payment of their allowances.

Some of the corps members in Lagos told NAN that INEC had not paid them the N700 daily allowance since the exercise began eight days ago.

One of them, Emmanuel Samuel, said at Tomia Primary School, Agbado, Oke-Odo Local Government Council Development Area that many of his colleagues had no money to continue with the exercise.

“We have only been paid N10, 000 which was for the training we had.


“They are supposed to pay us N5,600 for feeding and transportation for two weeks but they have not paid us anything till now.

“So there is a possibility that we will go on strike on Monday because we cannot continue to work under this condition,” Samuel said.

A female corps member, Janet Eze, told NAN that they had been surviving on the benevolence of individuals in the area where they work since the exercise commenced.

She said, “People come here to encourage us. Some buy soft drinks and snacks for us because INEC has refused to fulfil its promise to us.”

NAN reports that the corps members handling the registration at Aboru area in Iyana-Ipaja nearly boycotted the exercise on Sunday on the same claim.

It took the intervention of some community leaders who went to the registration officers’ converging centre at Tomia Primary School, Agbado-Oke-Odo to pick them up for registration to commence at about 10a.m.

A community leader at Aboru, Mr. Victor Fagbemi, expressed disappointment with the shoddy manner with the exercise was being carried out.

According to him, only about 20 per cent of the eligible voters in the area will be registered at the end of the exercise if the situation continues.

“We have appealed to INEC to provide more Direct Data Capture machines for us because this area is highly populated but unfortunately they are yet to do so.

“At the end of the day, I will not be surprised if they are only able to register 20 per cent of the people because of the delays.”

Meanwhile, the corps members in Lagos Island Local Government Area, had on Saturday protested the non-payment of their allowances to the Oba of Lagos, Rilwan Akiolu.

The Oba assured them that their demands would be met by the concerned authorities.

When contacted, an INEC staff in the Lagos office told NAN on condition of anonymity that “he was sure the corps members would not boycott the exercise because they were on national assignment.”

He said that they had been paid N10,000 out of a total of N30,000 earmarked for each of them for the exercise.

He added that they were informed of the terms and conditions before the registration commenced.