...Says recruitment was open to all Deltans who applied
By Akpos Oghenetega,
The Chairman of the Delta State Independent Electoral Commission (DSIEC), Dr Jerry Agbaike, has debunked allegations of recruiting and training members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as ad-hoc staff for the conduct of the July 13th local government elections.
Advocate. ng in an exclusive report said DSIEC recruited and conducted training for some PDP members and ad-hoc staff for the conduct of the polls.
Recall that DSIEC in a press release signed by Dr. Jerry Agbaike, Chairman, Delta State Independent Electoral Commission (DSIEC), published in Pointer newspaper on June 27th, 2024 which reads; “TRAINING OF DSIEC ADHOC STAFF FOR THE CONDUCT OF THE JULY 13, 2024 LOCAL GOVERNMENT ELECTIONS IN DELTA STATE.
“The general public a hereby informed, especially candidates that applied for recruitment into the under-listed DSIEC positions for the conduct of the July 13, 2024, Local Government Elections in Delta State, that the training of Adhoc staff is scheduled to take place on Saturday, June 29, 2024, at 9:00 am at designated training centres across the 25 Local Government Council Headquarters of the State. For ease of reference, the vacant positions for Adhoc staff include:
“Local Government Returning Officers (LGROS), Ward Returning Officers (WRO), Supervisory Presiding Officers (SPOs), Presiding Officers and Poll Clerks.
“Accordingly, all Applicants are kindly requested to reach the Chief Electors! Officers at the Commission's field offices to locate the appropriate venues for the exercise.”
Reacting to the report in a telephone conversation, DSIEC Chairman, Dr Agbaike explained that no one had been recruited at the time of the training, adding that the training exercise of the Ward Returning Officers (WRO), Supervisory Presiding Officers (SPOs), Presiding Officers and Poll Clerks, was an interaction process toward selecting suitable and qualified Deltans as ad-hoc staff to man the elections.
He stated further that during the interactive process, those were found not suitable for the conduct of elections, particularly if the Commission discovered that the applicant was a card-carrying of any political will to be dropped from the list of selected candidates.
While debunking the allegation of recruiting PDP members or being selective in its recruiting process, Dr. Agbaike, said; “the process was thrown open irrespective of ethnic gender or religious affiliations.
“There was no categorization of those to come for the training, we said that all those who applied should come for the training, we said. So, those who turned up from the training section were applicants from different backgrounds and across different classes, including civil servants, youth corps members and people from private sectors.”
“In our newspaper’s publication we said all applicants, we didn’t mention political parties, when we said all applicants, it includes anyone who applied. And we are still in the process of shortlisting names of successful applicants.
