A scapegoat emerged yesterday in the hitches galore at the registration of would-be voters - Youth Corps members.
Their low knowledge of computer is responsible for the hitches in the registration of voters, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said.
But the electoral body moved to correct the lapses that have dogged the voter registration, which enters its third day today.
INEC’s National Commissioner in charge of Information and Publicity, Prince Solomon Soyebi, said the Commission overrated the Corps members mobilised for the exercise, thinking that they knew the workings of the computer-based equipment.
The 240,000 Corps members were, also yesterday, given “software instruction” to address the “technical challenges”.
Soyebi, who spoke on an AIT programme, said: “We assumed that these Corps members should know how to operate a simple machine, like the DDC machine, in addition to the training that they had, but, unfortunately, they disappointed us. We discovered they could not and many of them had to be battling with it, unsuccessfully.
“These are graduates and we never expected that they would be unable to handle the computer, but the reality is that majority of them could not and we had to be shuffling them.”
Soyebi promised that the process would improve as the registration officers get used to the operation of the machines. He said INEC officials would assist the registration officers to reduce the hitches.
He also promised that payment of the first instalment of corps members’ allowances would be fast tracked. Other logistics would also be looked into with a view to addressing all observed lapses.
He also admitted that the Corps members’ allowances were to be paid before the start of the exercise, but could not be paid due to “tedious banking processes”.
INEC promised to pay N10,000 to each corps member at the commencement of the exercise and a balance of N20,000 when it is concluded.
