The Speaker of Nigeria’s House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole, on Monday expressed support for the allocation of N71 billion for the new Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC’s) voter register.
Speaking to aviation correspondents at the presidential wing of the Murtala Mohamed Airport (MMA), Lagos on his way to Abuja, Mr. Bankole disclosed that what the electoral commission’s boss is seeking for is only a little fraction of the recently passed supplementary budget, adding that the sum is needed for plausible elections in the country.
“We just passed the N4.6trillion budget, N71billion is less than one per cent. What is one per cent of N4.6trillion, 46billion; now this gentleman is asking for 1.5 per cent of the budget for us to have credible, free and fair elections. I think he should have it and we should move our nation forward,” He said.
Last Thursday, Attahiru Jega, the new chairman for the Independent National Electoral Commission disclosed that the commission needs between N55billion to N72billion for a new voter register, adding that if the funds are not released by the treasury before the first week of August, INEC will have to use the existing register.
“Following extensive consultations with experts in electronic voter registration and logistics as well as manufacturers and vendors of electronic data capture equipment in the past three weeks, our assessment is that it will cost between N55 billion and N72 billion to conduct a credible compilation of a new voter register between August and November,” he said, as reported recently.
“This is based on the procurement and full deployment of 120,000 composite electronic voter registration equipment, principally laptop computers, finger print scanners, high resolution cameras, backup power packs and integrated printer for producing temporary but high quality voters’ cards that can be used for the January elections.”
Meanwhile, Mr. Bankole, while commenting on the time schedule for the 2011 general elections, said that the INEC boss is capable of handling the polls’ timetable. “He (Mr. Jega) is the one in charge, we should let him do his job,” he said.
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