The 80 rerun elections ordered by various courts in the land will guzzle at least N10 billion, Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Prof Mahmud Yakubu, has said.
The INEC boss added that the reruns must be conducted between now and March 19, in line with the pronouncement of the courts.
Yakubu, who made the disclosure when he appeared before the House of Representatives’ Committee on Electoral Matters to defend the INEC’s allocation in the 2016 budget proposal, said the N10 billion was required 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.
Subsequently, 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 of INEC.
Our correspondent reports that in sharp contrast to the 2015 budget 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 higher proposal in the 2015 budget was as a result of the general elections, which took place last year.
