Contrary to wild rumors that the Independent National Electoral Commission has secretly employed graduates into its workforce, the Commission’s chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, on Thursday dismissed the rumor as he said there were laid down processes of “shortlisting those that will be invited.”
Prof. Jega made this known on an AIT program where he also revealed that 800,000 people applied for the 1,500 vacancies in the commission.
Explaining the commission’s ongoing recruitment exercise, he said the commission was fair and acted according to the law.
According to him, apart from advertising in several newspapers, the advertisements were posted in state and local government electoral offices therefore it would be almost impossible for him or the commission to indulge in any act of secrecy during the recruitment process.
He said, “There is no way anybody will say he missed the advertisement. We put an application form online and over 800,000 people applied. That information was provided.
“On the basis of the information, we did our screening. INEC wants to employ 1,500 people during this recruitment exercise and over 800,000 applied.
“There is no way you can interview 800,000 people. We have criteria for short-listing those that will be invited. For example, we are employing people for entry level positions. But people, who have Master’s and PHD applied. There is no way we can employ them for the entry level positions” he maintained.