Officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) 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. – Punch.
