The chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, on Thursday disclosed that a total of N300 million “will be saved” by the commission for scheduling to hold the next month’s governorship and Senatorial elections in Kogi state on the same day.
The INEC boss, who made the disclosure during the commission’s 2020 Budget defence with a joint Senate and House of Representatives Committee on INEC, said the idea came when they were served court orders by appeal tribunal that nullified the Senatorial election of Kogi-west.
“We decided to combine the two elections after realising a margin of N300 million. So, voters in Kogi-west will now have two ballot papers and two boxes during the election. We have saved the cost of ad-hoc staff, observers, media and other logistics of conducting two elections independently,” he said.
He also said the commission would combine governorship in Bayelsa with supplementary election in six places in Brass local government area.
On why the INEC in almost in every budget defence is usually caught with expenditure outside budget envelope, Mahmud said they work under pressure to carry out some electoral process that couldn’t have been possible if they waited for budgetary allocations.
“It’s very hectic time for us, it was almost impossible for us to conduct election in 2018 without spending outside the budget envelop.”
He cited the issue of by-elections and supplementary election as some of the reason that forced the commission to resort to extra-budgetary spending.
“It’s something I don’t want say, but from 2015 to 2019, on an average, one National Assembly member died every month, and we must conduct election to replace them.”
The chairman of the Senate committee, Kabiru Gaya (APC, Kano South), commended the INEC chairman for saving N300 million.
