The 30 missing ad-hoc staff of the electoral commission, INEC, who were reported missing have been found.

An INEC spokesperson confirmed Sunday afternoon that they had been found.

“We can now confirm that all the 30 ad-hoc staff engaged for the 2019 Kogi Governorship election and posted to Polling Units 002, 006 and 013 at Olamaboro III; and Polling Units 006, 012, 015, 016, 022 at Imani 1 all in Olamaboro Local Government Area have been accounted for,” the Chief Press Secretary to INEC Chairman, Rotimi Oyekanmi, said in a statement.

“The staff are safe, sound and back in their respective homes”.

He said the election-day duty staff could not be accounted for initially following the violent attacks by some armed thugs at their respective duty posts after the close of polls.

He also said the chairman of the INEC, Mahmood Yakubu, has personally spoken with some of them and they confirmed that they are hale and hearty.

He disclosed that the commission has established that none of them was either injured or killed.

“They were able to successfully conclude the result collation process before the commotion started “The collated election results at Local Government Level are now being announced at the State Collation Centre at the Commission’s State Office in Lokoja,” he said.

INEC had earlier declared 30 staff posted to Olamaboro Local Government Area (LGA) missing.

The LGA officer-in-charge of collating and announcing the local government’s results, Garba Mahmood, said they were reported missing after the observation of some police officers who raised concern that they were last seen shortly after voting ended at 2 p.m. on Saturday.

Mahmood said repeated calls to their telephone numbers did not go through. A lot of the ad-hoc staff INEC employ for elections are serving members of the National Youth Service Corps.

They were declared missing around 1 a.m. on Sunday during the final collation of results in the local government.

Subsequently, the results of the LGA has been declared missing.

The Guardian reached out the commission’s spokesman, Rotimi Oyekanmi, but his number was not reachable at this report time.

The missing INEC staff include Presiding Officers (POs) and Assistant Presiding Officers (APOs) of polling units in Imane ward 1 and 2 of Olamaboro LGA of Kogi State.

See the list of the missing staff as provided by INEC and the police at the Olamaboro collation centre.
Olamaboro III Unit 002- (1) Oladipo Victor (2) Achimi Samson P-08136653704 (3) Umar Faruk Sani-08032745663 (4) Adama Ibrahim Unit 006- (1) Abayomi Roseline E. (2) Onuche Abel E (3) Onojah Emmanuel (4) Umoru Mariam- Unit 013- (1) Effiong Akwaowo-Ukpe (2) Mattew Agada (3) Samuel Ibrahim (4) Sado Bello Imane 1 Unit 006- (1) Nzeofia Kingsley- Presiding Officer (PO) (2) Hassan Musa- Assistant Presiding Officer 1 (APO 1) (3) Ekele Michael – Assistant Presiding Officer 2(APO 2) (4) Ahmed Mattew – Assistant Presiding Officer 3(APO 3 ) Unit 012 -(1) Ovioawho Omonefe B.- Presiding Officer (PO) (2) Baba Eric -Assistant Presiding Officer 1 (APO 1) (3) Gabriel Samuel Assistant Presiding Officer 2 (APO 2) Unit 015-(1) Nwafor Emmanuel- Presiding Officer (PO) (2) Agada Ochegeugwa- Assistant Presiding Officer 1(APO 1) (3) Ojih Martina- Assistant Presiding Officer 2(APO 2) Unit 016 (1) Ezugwu Stanley- Presiding Officer (PO) (2) Mohammed Abdullahi- Assistant Presiding Officer 1(APO 1) (3) Mohammed Ibrahim- Assistant Presiding Officer 2(APO 2) (4) Adejoh Joy- Assistant Presiding Officer 3(APO 3) Unit 022 (1) Adebisi Comfort – Presiding Officer (PO) (2) Yusuf Sofiat- Assistant Presiding Officer 1(APO 1) (3) Onoja Alice- Assistant Presiding Officer 2(APO 2) (4) Onuche Vincent- Assistant Presiding Officer 3(APO 3)