Politics
Reps Grill JAMB Registrar Over Alleged Employment Racketeering
The House of Representatives Ad-hoc Committee investigating employment racketeering by Ministries, Departments and Agencies and Mismanagement of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System, IPPIS, has accused the Registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof Ishaq Oloyede of engaging in lopsided employment in the agency.
The Chairman of the Committee, Hon. Yusuf Gagdi, who stated this at the resumption of the investigative hearing of the committee on Monday maintained that MDAs who recruit without advertisement have contravened extant laws.
The Chairman of the Committee also advised the JAMB Chief Executive Officer against failure to advertise vacancies, adding that such a move could sideline many Nigerian citizens from recruitment into civil service.
Prof Ishaq Oloyede, who appeared before the ad-hoc committee on invitation told members that they did not advertise vacancies for 300 staff recently recruited because they wanted to meet up with the timeline for the exercise.
Prof Oloyede while reacting to questions by the lawmakers on several persons engaged in his agency explained that 42 drivers and other personnel numbering 150 were recruited.
The JAMB boss equally informed the lawmakers that over 1,700 ad-hoc staff were recruited because of exigencies in the establishment.
Responding to questions on the selection process to engage professionally qualified personnel, the Registrar explained that those recruited in his agency were qualified for the job, claiming that nobody was surcharged in the process.
However, the explanation by the JAMB Boss did not go down well with the lawmakers who expressed worry that JAMB’s refusal to advertise before recruitment might deny many qualified Nigerians the opportunity to apply for those vacancies.
The Chairman of the committee also blamed JAMB for alleged connivance with the FCC and other agencies to promote and encourage job racketeering in the country.
The House probe panel also demanded that the agency immediately submits to it the list of all staff employed between 2015- 2023 while decrying the lack of adherence to extant regulations of the nation’s public service on the matter.
Lawmakers said that based on documents available to them, the examination body had been undertaking employment without due process of advertisement and shortlisting qualified job seekers before letters are issued.
The lawmakers noted that the agency had been getting waivers for the recruitment of staff yet it failed to adhere to the provisions of the law on non-engagement of more than 100 staff annually, disclosing that the examination body in 2021 employed more than 300 staff in a single recruitment exercise without adhering to the extant provision of the law on the issue.
Prof. Amupitan gave the warning on Saturday, in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, during the South-South Zonal Readiness Assessment and Interactive Staff Engagement organised ahead of the 2027 general elections.
He said insecurity remained a potential challenge to the electoral process but stressed that the Commission would not allow threats against its personnel to undermine its constitutional responsibilities.
“Insecurity may pose a challenge, but our collective constitutional resolve is far stronger. Let me again send a clear message from Port Harcourt: anyone who attempts to threaten, intimidate, or harm our ad-hoc staff, NYSC members, or permanent personnel will be brought to justice under the full weight of the law,” he said.
The INEC Chairman, who was accompanied by National Commissioners, directors and technical aides, disclosed that the South-South engagement was the fifth in a series of zonal assessments, following similar exercises in the South-West, North-West, South-East and North-East.
He explained that his physical presence across the geopolitical zones reflected the Commission’s field-first approach, emphasising that electoral integrity must be established through effective operations at the grassroots.
According to him, the assessment would cover operational preparedness across the 123 Local Government Areas in the six South-South states.
On election security, Prof. Amupitan said INEC had moved away from reactive security arrangements traditionally activated around election day to a proactive, intelligence-driven framework known as the “ICCES Tentacle”.
He explained that the framework was designed to extend inter-agency security coordination from national and state headquarters to local government areas and Registration Area Centres, including remote communities.
He identified three critical pillars of the framework as mapping and mitigating security threats, protecting electoral personnel and infrastructure, and guaranteeing safe access to polling units.
The INEC boss said the security arrangement would provide comprehensive protection for electoral personnel, technological infrastructure, including Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) devices and server infrastructure, as well as voters.
He added that the framework was intended to ensure that every polling unit, irrespective of its geographical location or history of security challenges, remained safe and accessible for the exercise of democratic rights.
Prof. Amupitan disclosed that the South-South security architecture comprised approximately 60 major operational formations, headquarters and state commands operating under the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES).
The network, he said, brings together military, naval, air, police and other security and intelligence agencies across the six states.
“Together, this integrated multi-agency network represents the operational backbone that guarantees intelligence-led protection across every riverine creek, coastal axis, and land-based polling unit in the Niger Delta,” he stated.
Providing an overview of the region’s electoral significance, the INEC Chairman said the South-South had the fourth-largest voting bloc in the country, with 15,823,550 registered voters, representing 15.30 per cent of the national register.
Rivers State alone, he said, accounts for 3,736,434 registered voters spread across the 23 local government areas.
Alhaji Abubakar made the demand following revelations that some INEC registration officers allegedly abused their access to the voter registration system to introduce irregular records into the database.
In a statement issued by his Director of Strategic Communications, Mr Phrank Shaibu, the former vice-president described the development as a serious breach of the Commission’s internal safeguards and raised concerns about the integrity of the electoral process.
He urged INEC to identify the officials implicated in the alleged misconduct and explain what disciplinary or legal measures had been taken against them.
Alhaji Abubakar also called for an independent forensic audit of the preliminary voters’ register to establish the scale of the alleged manipulation, identify affected records and determine how the questionable entries were introduced into the system.
He further insisted that INEC preserve all relevant voter records, image files, system access logs and electronic audit trails to prevent the destruction or alteration of evidence before an independent examination could be conducted.
The former vice-president also demanded that the Commission disclose the identities of companies contracted to produce sensitive election materials ahead of the 2027 polls, arguing that transparency was essential to building public confidence in the electoral process.
INEC’s Director of Information and Communication Technology, Dr Lawrence Bayode, had earlier disclosed during a television interview that some registration officers across the country allegedly used their official login credentials to introduce irregularities into the voters’ database.
Dr Bayode explained that the Commission’s Automated Biometric Identification System helped identify questionable records and establish how some irregularities entered the system.
He, however, clarified that not all suspicious photographs were AI-generated, as some resulted from poor registration procedures.
The development followed public concerns over suspected AI-generated photographs, alleged duplicate entries and other inconsistencies discovered in the preliminary voters’ register published online on October 26, 2026.
INEC has maintained that the published document is a preliminary register and that it is reviewing questionable records ahead of the certification of the final Register of Voters.
The controversy has intensified calls for greater transparency and accountability in the management of the voters’ register as preparations gather momentum for the 2027 general elections.
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