Some ad-hoc staff who participated in the recent population trial census of the National Population Commission (NPC) in Nasarawa State have protested the non-payment of their allowances by the commission across the state.
The staff, however, appealed to the NPC Chairman to intervene in order to ensure the immediate payment of their hanging allowances.
In Nasarawa State, the NPC nationwide trial census which took place between 13 and 30 July 2022, was conducted by over 4,000 field functionaries engaged as ad-hoc staff by the commission.
However, over three months after the exercise which was conducted in Karu Local Government area of the state, some of the ad-hoc staff who participated in the trial census said they had not been paid their allowances.
The ad-hoc staff, who were mostly youths, mobilised themselves at different locations in Keffi, Akwanga, and Doma Local Government Areas of the state displaying placards with statements inscriptions such as ‘NPC You have Failed Us!’ ‘NPC Please Pay Us Our Allowances. We worked for it’, ‘NPC You have rendered Us Bankrupt!’, among others.
Speaking to journalists, the spokesperson for the Adhoc staff in Keffi zone, John Adigidzi, said he served as enumerator during the trial census, however stating further that most of their colleagues were paid immediately after the exercise, but wondered why NPC had not paid them since the trial census was over three months ago.
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Another protester from Akwanga Local Government Area, Fatima Abdullahi, explained that considering the sacrifices and hardships they faced throughout the trial census, they expected NPC to reciprocate their efforts by paying them their entitlements and not otherwise.
She said: “I had a leg injury during the training for the trial census and I have been in pains since we finished the work. I borrowed money to feed and transport myself throughout the census. But NPC has refused to pay my training and field allowances. My creditors are not happy with me.”
A supervisor during the trial census, Mr Yahaya Ayinaka, who was seen mobilising his colleagues at the Doma Local Government Secretariat, called on the NPC to carry out thorough investigations into all financial transactions during the trial census.
“Some of our colleagues who participated in the trial census were paid through POS and transfer through personal accounts. These are some of the reasons some of us were not paid. NPC should live up to the much talked about digital service they said they had adopted,” Ayinaka said.
When contacted, the Nasarawa State Director of the commission, Umar Tafida, confirmed that over 250 ad-hoc staff who participated in the trial census have not been paid their allowances.
He, however, called on the affected ad-hoc staff to be calm while the commission was taking steps towards addressing the issue.
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