The Nigerian Senate has finally approved the N53 billion security agencies component of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) budget for the 2019 general elections.
This was after Senator Goje Danjuma presented the report of the committee on appropriations on the budget of security agencies for the 2019 general election.
Senator Bassey Akpan seconds that the Senate do receive and consider the report of the committee on appropriations on the budget of security agencies for the 2019 general election.
Ahead of the 2019 general elections, the Senate has approved a total sum of N53bn for the Office of the National Security Adviser, ONSA. and security agencies.
The fund is meant for the supervision of the 2019 general elections.
The Senate had approved N234.5 billion for the INEC ahead of the 2019 general election, and however, failed to approve the budget for security agencies as requested by President Muhammadu Buhari.
It added N45.5 billion to the initial N189 billion approved by the Senate Committee on INEC, bringing the total amount approved for the electoral commission to N234,507,272,393.
The approval was made after the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriation, Danjuma Goje, presented a report following his committee’s consideration of Mr Buhari’s letter.
The president had written the Senate requesting that the National Assembly approve N242 billion (242,445,322,600) as requested by INEC and security agencies for the 2019 elections.
He said the entire sum of N242 billion be taken from other subheads in the 2018 Appropriation Act.
His recent letter differed from the letter he wrote to the Senate in July where he asked that of the total sum, N164 billion (N164,104,792,065) will be drawn from the 2018 budget while N78 billion (N78,314,530,535) will form part of the 2019 budget of these agencies.
Presenting the report, Mr Goje said the decision to approve the INEC budget was informed by the urgent need for funds to begin preparations for the polls.
Mr Goje recommended that the Senate approve N143,312,256,955 which was initially recommended by the INEC committee and the additional N45,965,015,438 be approved as part of the virement of the 2018 budget.
He also recommended that for source of fund, “N189,007,272,393 requested for the funding of the 2019 general elections should be vired from both Recurrent and Capital components of Special Intervention Programme captured in the Service Wide Votes of the 2018 Appropriation Acts as shown below and be added to the sum of 45.5 billion provided for INEC in the Statutory Transfers. This will bring the total budget if INEC in the 2018 budget to N234,507,272,393.”
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