By Sanni Onogu, Abuja
Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Prof. Mahmood Yakubu on Thursday said N1billion will not be enough for the 2020 governorship elections in Edo and Ondo States.
Yakubu was defending the agency’s 2020 budget estimates before the National Assembly Joint Committee on INEC in Abuja.
N40 billion has been voted for INEC in the 2020 budget as statutory transfer in the fiscal document presented by President Muhammadu Buhari, now being considered by the committees of the National Assembly.
Yakubu told the committee that other supplementary elections might arise. He added that the commission saved N300 million by combining the Kogi West Senatorial by-election with the governorship poll.
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He said: “Because of that we saved over N300 million that could have spent if the election were to hold as a stand-alone.
“Now, it will cost less than N10 million because we have combined that election. Also in Bayelsa State, we have a supplementary election in Brass Local Government Area.
“We would have concluded in March that it begin a subject of protracted litigation over six polling units. We are combining it with the governorship election as well. It is going to cost next to nothing.”
The INEC chair added that apart from increasing the allowance of workers, he was determined to increase their wages to motivate them to resist inducements from unscrupulous politicians.
He told the committee that about 205 workers, who were being investigated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for their roles in the 2015 general elections, had been placed on half salary.
“On electoral offences, we don’t have the capacity to investigate. We can only collaborate with police…”
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