Officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission who
participated in last Saturday’s presidential and National Assembly
election and those who will take part in the governorship and state
Houses of Assembly election on April 11 have been insured for N1.99m
each.
Ahead of the general elections, INEC had put in place a life
insurance cover for its employees and members of the National Youth
Service Corps, who usually serve as ad-hoc members of staff of the
electoral body.
Three ad-hoc employees of INEC reportedly died in Benue State during
the presidential election. The first victim was reported to have died
in an accident on her way to her duty post, while the other two also
died in a road accident on Sunday.
Their relatives are poised to receive N1.99m as insurance
compensation for each of the lost souls as a result of the group life
insurance cover.
Some of the underwriters told our correspondent that the insurance
cover for the INEC employees and the ad-hoc workers was shared among
different insurance companies and that most of them got the premium on
Friday, a day before the commencement of the polls.
The cover is to provide compensation to relatives of those who may
lose their lives as a result of electoral violence and other risks.
The National Commissioner in-charge of South West, INEC, Prof. Lai
Olurode, exclusively disclosed to our correspondent that the electoral
body had put in place a life insurance cover worth N1.99m for those who
would superintend the general elections.
“INEC employees have insurance and we have cover in place for the
ad-hoc staff, especially the youth corps members who are serving as
presiding and assisting officers during the 2015 elections,” he said.
The commissioner said the officials were entitled to an insurance
cover worth N1.99m for a public servant on level eight, step one in the
case of death, adding that any of them that suffered injuries would be
entitled to insurance compensation worth N108,000.
Olurode said INEC engaged many reputable insurance companies to provide cover for its officials and ad-hoc employees.
He also said that this was not the first time the commission was
purchasing insurance cover for those involved in election duties as it
had done the same in previous polls.
While he noted that no compensation could be adequate for a lost
life, the INEC commissioner said it was still better than not having any
cover for them.
He said that INEC had put in place a package to make the elections
attractive to the youth who would like to participate in the process.
The Director of Press and Public Relations, NYSC, Mrs. Bose
Aderibigbe, said the organisation had signed a Memorandum of
Understanding with INEC.
“We are in partnership with INEC and there is an insurance cover for
the corps members in the MoU we signed with INEC,” she said.
It was also discovered that ahead of the elections, some
underwriting companies had developed political insurance policies to
cover losses that might arise from violence, accidents and losses that
might occur during the polls.
The introduction of political insurance cover, according to them, is
necessitated by experiences from other African countries that are
coping with the problem of terrorism, in which the insurance sector has
had to introduce special covers to lessen the impact.
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