THE order by the courts to rerun election will cost the country N10 billion, Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Prof Mahmud Yakubu has said. The rerun which must be conducted between now and March 19.
Yakubu, while presenting the commission’s 2016 budget before the House of Representatives’ Committee on Electoral Matters, said the N10 billion was reqiured for logistics and other electoral activities.
The committee assured Nigerians of its readiness to offer assistance for the prosecution of the 2019 general election, saying early preparation for the 2019 polls should be prioritised.
As a result, Chairperson of the committee, Aishatu Dukku, demanded the schedule of the purchases to be made by the commission.
In addition, she said the committee would visit state offices to ascertain the level of preparedness.
Unlike 2015 when its allocation was N62.537 billion, the commission is proposing N45 billion in 2016, from which N20.955 billion was for personnel, N19 billion for electoral recurrent, N2.260 billion for capital projects and N2.507 billion for overhead.
The House Committee on Aviation has condemned the Nigeria Metreological Agency (NIMET) for attempting to mislead the country on its revenue generation.
At the agency’s presentation yesterday, the committee discovered that NIMET generated part of its 2015 revenue in dollars while remitting it to the Federal Government in naira.
The agency was also blamed for failing or refusing to give details of its earnings and at what exchange rate.
The Nkeiruka Onyejeocha-led-committee requested the Director General (DG), Anthony Anofurum, to explain the discrepancies.
The agency was also asked why its submissions were in naira.
Anofurum said some of the agency’s revenue came in naira, others are in dollars, but the Finance Director, Jiya, said the dollar revenue was converted and “at the official rate”.
He said there were different official exchange rates in the period under review.
The committee was not satisfied by the agency’s explanations and asked that the figures be properly reconciled.