The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has provided clarification on how the allocated N18 billion in the 2023 supplementary budget will be utilized. INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, addressed this matter during a briefing to the House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations regarding the commission’s budget.<\/p>\n
Yakubu emphasized that the N18 billion is not solely designated for the conduct of the three off-cycle elections, which include those in Bayelsa, Imo, and Kogi States, as well as various bye-elections across the country.<\/p>\n
The INEC Chairman explained that the funds earmarked for the three off-cycle elections and bye-elections have been integrated into the supplementary budget. Additionally, he pointed out that a portion of the N18 billion will be allocated for the payment of staff salaries and allowances.<\/p>\n
Yakubu highlighted, “You will recall that in April this year, there was a 40 percent increase in peculiar allowance of civil servants. It was not provided in our 2023 budget because the budget was passed in December last year. At the same time, there is another circular from the government dated February, where the Duty Tour Allowance (DTA) and other consequential allowances were increased by the government. There is no provision in our statutory budget. We have over 15,000 staff, and it is not easy to find the money to pay without a supplementary budget. So, we made a case to the government, and we have been included. For the 16,614 staff of INEC, it is N10.6 billion, and we have made provision for that.”<\/p>\n
Furthermore, Yakubu revealed that INEC had been unable to conduct certain bye-elections due to the lack of budgetary provisions. He explained that there are 11 vacancies, seven in the national assembly and four in state assemblies, that require INEC to organize by-elections to fill. However, insufficient financial resources were available to facilitate these elections.<\/p>\n
The INEC Chairman expressed his hope that no further by-elections would be necessary so that the commission can focus on those already budgeted for. He added, “Not many people in Nigeria will believe that within four months after the inauguration of the national and state assemblies, 11 vacancies have occurred. Eleven bye-elections in four months. Unfortunately, the majority coming from the House of Representatives.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has provided clarification on how the allocated N18 billion in the 2023 supplementary budget will be utilized. INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, addressed this matter during a briefing to the House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations regarding the commission’s budget. Yakubu emphasized that the N18 billion is not solely […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":4136,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4135","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inec","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4135"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4135\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4159,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4135\/revisions\/4159"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}