I deliberately brought this piece to crime section because some INEC staff members are committing financial crime against the people of Nigeria and they need to be investigated by EFCC.

Few weeks ago, I applied to serve as Assistant Presiding Officer (APO) at INEC office in Saki, Oyo State. When the list was out, only the names of INEC Officials friends and family members were pasted. As a matter of fact, I did not see a single person considered on merit - it's strictly based on WHO YOU KNOW!!.

Some of us who did not lobby were asked to attend training, that perhaps we might be considered if some of those on the list fail to show up for the training... I did! The 3-day training was very stressful but I was determined, hoping that my name would be on the new list.

When the list was released after training, it was surprising that the same list was pasted, only that they added other few names of their relatives who were not on the first list. It was outrightly based on WHO YOU KNOW and NOT WHO ATTENDED THE TRAINING!!!.

Again, we were told to come on Friday evening (day before the presidential/National Assembly) elections, that we might replace those who would not show up eventually. I did! I had a sleepless night. We slept at the RAC. I even worked with one SPO to the extent that I was sweating in a cold weather, arranging and distributing election materials. I even lost my phone in the process. Despite all that, guess what, I was not considered eventually. There was still favouritism even at the last minute selection. Perhaps some people have bribed the SPOs, EO, and the rest of INEC Staff members....

After all the struggle, I went back home the following day(election day), when they were about to leave for Polling Units.

Apart from favouritism in selecting the adhoc staff, another serious crime committed was the use of 2APOs instead of 3. INEC rules stated clearly that 3APOs should be used at each PU plus PO making 4. Why did INEC staff at the local Governments decided to use 2, and embezzled the allowance meant for APOlll

Surprisingly, it's very disheartening that the people who were replaced by the those who did not show up were not paid a dime!!! The claim of INEC officials was that they will only pay those whose names appear on their list because all the names are traceable to one staff member or the other. We even got to know that some fake names were deliberately inserted by the officials so as to claim more allowances.

Lastly, if INEC Officials could be this corrupt, how do we expect them to conduct credible elections

My brother, this is Nigeria