Field officials of the National Identification Authority (NIA) registering people in the Eastern Region are refusing to work unless they are provided with protective gears.

Daddy Ericous, who leads the field staff, in a press release Wednesday, said although management promised to get them the gears to protect themselves from the deadly coronavirus, they are yet to receive them.

"Field officials were made to understand that NIA would procure and distribute PPEs across all centres by close of work on March 17, urging us to continue with work even without these essential protective materials.

"To our disappointment as at 8 am, March 18, no single centre has been provided with these protective materials as was promised by management," the statement said.

He called on all officials to remain at post but wait until they are provided with all protective equipment before they start work.

Below is the statement

Good morning fellow colleagues,

In our quest to ensuring optimum safety on the field in the wake of the most dreadful outbreak of Coronavirus pandemic, even as we continue relentlessly with the Mass Registration Exercise in the Eastern region in spite of the high-risk factors, we agreed in principle to continue working while waiting for the necessary PPEs to be provided by the authority.

Field officials were made to understand that NIA would procure and distribute PPEs across all centres by close of work on March 17, urging us to continue with work even without these essential protective materials.

To our disappointment as at 8 am today, March 18, no single centre has been provided with these protective materials as was promised by management.

When we sought to know what the situation is we were informed that the first batch of materials would be distributed today which in our view is certainly unacceptable considering the danger and risk we are exposed to while at post.

It is critical to reiterate our firm commitment and unflinching support to ensuring the ultimate success of this project even with our lives on the line and that we have been generously patient waiting on management to do the needful since the outbreak and the resultant public outcry to put the ongoing exercise on hold for obvious reasons.

It is against this backdrop that at this juncture we call on all officials to remain at post but wait until provided with all PPEs before
starting with work from today.

We entreat all and sundry to cooperate in this direction.

Regards.

Daddy Ericous
Field Staff Leadership
National Identification Authority