By Giwa SHILE
The National Assembly Joint Committee on Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC), has adopted President Muhammadu Buhari’s N143 billion budget request for 2019 General Elections as against the commission’s N198 billion request.
The Chairman of the joint committee, Sen. Suleiman Nazif, made this known after about 30 minutes joint session on Monday in Abuja.
He asked the INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu to appear before it on Tuesday by 1p.m., to re-present its budget to reflect N143 billion rather than the N189 billion earlier submitted.
“The joint committee has sat and deliberated the position to adopt the N143 billion as presented by Mr President.
“It is also the wish of this committee that INEC re-presents their budget of N143 billion as requested by Mr President.
“INEC has the opportunity to re-prioritise, and this committee will be ready to receive their report tomorrow. The committee will be reconvening tomorrow by 1 o’clock so that we can consider the presentation by INEC,” he said.
TBI Africa reports that the Senate Committee on INEC on Aug. 16, queried the commission for presenting a budgetary proposal that was at variance with the one presented by the president for the polls.
The INEC chairman had presented a proposal of N189 billion to the Senate Committee on INEC and requested its approval at once.
It would be recalled that President Muhammadu Buhari had in a letter dated July 11, also requested the National Assembly to approve the sum of N189 billion for the 2019 General Elections.
However, he requested the National Assembly to approve N143.52 billion in the form of virement from the 2018 Budget.
He added that the balance of N45 billion would be included in the 2019 Budget.
However, INEC presented a budget of N189 billion, requesting that it be approved as a lump sum by the National Assembly.
