By Valentine Amanze
The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) has said that it mobilsed its personnel adequately for the 2019 Presidential and Federal House of Assembly Elections.
NSCDC was reacting to allegations on the social and conventional media that the Corps did not mobilse the personnel adequately for the elections.
The Corps’ spokesman, Deputy Commandant Soji Alabi, in a statement, described the allegation as an attempt by some sponsored agents to whittle down the achievements of the Corps and successes recorded in the successful conduct of the 2019 elections.
His words: “To set the records straight, there was adequate preparations by the Corps in terms of training, deployment and logistics prior to the conduct of the elections. Every personnel of the Corps including those on leave and special assignment were recalled. Specially trained personnel on Peace and Conflict Resolutions, Counter Terrorism, Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear as well as sniffer dogs were deployed.”
He pointed out that before the commencement of the election, the Commandant General of the Corps, Abdullahi Gana Mohammadu, informed the personnel deployed for the monitoring of the elections that N15, 000.00 (Fifteen Thousand Naira only) would be paid to every officer and men that participated in the election monitoring across board, and the money was paid few hours before the elections.
But, he disclosed that some of the personnel received less than the N15, 000.00.
He explained that the discrepancy came as a result of the Access Bank Pay Day Loan earlier collected by the majority of the personnel which was deducted by the bank as soon as the money entered their accounts, even though some of them claimed ignorant of the loan.
“The Commandant General has also asked those short-paid without collecting loans from the bank to come up with proofs and the balance will be paid to them.
“Additional, the CG provided food for every member of the Corps in every polling Units across the 36 states including the FCT during the exercise as a way of boosting their morale,” he said.
Besides, he said that the professional conducts of the Corps’ personnel during the elections were applauded by all the stakeholders in election monitoring, Civil Society Oganisations, Foreign and Local Observers as well as other sister agencies.
He, however, urged the media to crosscheck their facts before publication.
