20,973 NSCDC Officers Paid 8 Months After Ekiti, Osun Gov’ship Elections

 

Yusuf Oketola

THE 20,973 personnel of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) who participated in the Ekiti and Osun states governorship elections have been paid their election assignment allowances on Friday, February 17, 2023. 

The payment came eight and seven months after the elections had been held.

NSCDC had deployed 9,747 officers for the Ekiti state governorship election conducted on June 18, 2022.

The security agency also deployed 11,226 personnel to provide security during the governorship election held on July 16, 2022 in Osun.

Investigation by OSUN DEFENDER revealed that the delay in the payment of the election allowance was unusual, a development that got the personnel worried. 

A highly placed source within the agency who confirmed the payment to the medium yesterday said it was a first time their payment would be delayed after the election assignments.

She said: “Based on our previous experience with security deployment for elections, it was expected that latest a day to that election, we would start getting alerts. This Osun and Ekiti elections, in the history of the organisation, is the only one that personnel were not paid months later.

“To make matters worse, while on duty in polling booths around the country, our colleagues from other agencies were getting alerts and would share the news with us; so it was quite depressing.”