INEC Gets Cash For Elections

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has received cash from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for election logistics despite the general scarcity of new naira ntes biting the country.

A national Commissioner of INEC disclosed the development to Daily Trust on Tuesday.

There had been apprehension over the inability of INEC to get cash from the CBN even though its budget is a first-line charge. This was a result of the cashless policy introduced by the CBN with the support of the federal government.

INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmud Yakubu, during a visit to CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele had said they needed cash rather than bank transfers to sort out many of their activities.

The commission had explained that even though it does most of its payments through online transfers, some specific services have to be paid for in cash.

He said some of the service providers, especially transporters, are required to be paid in cash and besides, experience has shown that emergency situations do arise on Election Day, which could demand the use of cash by the commission.

Many observers had condemned the delay in releasing the funds considering that there are many hard-to-reach areas in many of the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), hence the need for early preparation, deployment of equipment and people that would officiate the election.

There was however a sigh of relief yesterday when some INEC officials confirmed that the monies had been released by the CBN.

The INEC national commissioner, who spoke in confidence, said branch controllers of the CBN have been instructed to disburse the funds to INEC offices in the states.

“The issue of the cash crunch has been resolved and our resident electoral commissioners have started collecting the money,” he said.

“Before they got the clearance to have access to the money, we earlier sent the requests to CBN based on the demands of each state. What the REC in each state requires is different depending on the topography of their states and it is based on this that the funds were approved.”

He said the commission had asked security operatives to work closely with INEC in order to ensure a hitch-free disbursement from the commission’s state headquarters to the LGAs.

Confirming the release of the funds, the Oyo State REC, Dr Adeniran Rahmon Tella, yesterday, told journalists at a news conference that the commission had secured CBN to offset the payment of ad-hoc workers.