- INEC included the construction of a sick bay at the commission’s headquarters in the 2018 budget appropriation
- The commission there was high mortality rate in the commission as it lost no fewer than 85 members of staff in 2017
- INEC boss Mahmood Yakubu said the sick bay will particularly be useful for female staff
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said that 85 members of its staff died in 2017.
This was disclosed by Mahmood Yakubu who is the chairman of the commission,on Wednesday, January 24.
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Yakubu spoke before the members of the Senate committee on INEC to explain the inclusion of construction of a sick bay at the commission’s headquarters in the 2018 budget appropriation.
He said: “I wish to draw the attention of senators to the high mortality rate in the commission.
“Last year alone, we lost 85 staff, some by accidents but mainly natural. In fact that’s why we want to establish a sick bay at the commission.
”For instance some of our staff slumped and died on the premises of the commission and we think part of the problem is that people don’t check their blood pressure and things like that. So, we say we should establish a sick bay within the commission. We are also operating under enormous pressure."
The INEC chairman said the provision will be extended to state offices in the future and would particularly be useful to female workers.
He said: “If we have staff who have babies and are not well-to-do enough to hire nannies and they come to us with the babies, there should be some small provision for them to keep the babies, breastfeed them from time to time. It will not affect preparation for election because elections are not conducted in headquarters of INEC."
Meanwhile, INEC said the ongoing nationwide Continuous Voters Registration (CVR) would be temporarily suspended 60 days to the commencement of the 2019 general elections.
The commission in a statement issued on Wednesday, January 24, in Abuja by Solomon Soyebi, national commissioner and chairman, information and voter education committee, said the exercise would be suspended to due to a change in electoral law.
Soyebi disclosed that so far over four million Nigerians had been registered across the country, in the exercise that began in 2017.
INEC official at Abuja court on NAIJ.com TV
Source: Naija.ng