TheCable

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says it has recruited 9,374 ad hoc staff for the April 9 federal capital territory (FCT) area council election.

Jacob Jatau, resident electoral commissioner (REC) in the FCT, disclosed this in an interview with NAN on Thursday in Abuja.

INEC had postponed the election, which was initially scheduled for March 16, over its inability to recruit enough ad hoc staff.

“I can confirm to you that the commission is fully ready for the April 9 election,” he said.

“We have been able to recruit the additional ad hoc staff to meet the shortfall that made us postpone the election.

“The commission has also trained the additional ad hoc staff recruited for the exercise.

“All is now set for the conduct of free, fair and credible election in the FCT.”

Ndidi Okafor, INEC deputy director of publicity in FCT, said the commission had also recruited and trained extra personnel to address likely shortage on election day.

“The ad hoc staff are employed from the serving National Youth Serving Corps (NYSC) members, students of the University of Abuja and ex-NYSC corps members from our data bank,” Okafor said.

Okafor called for the collaboration of stakeholders to ensure credible and violence free election comes April 9.