Group says INEC’s 2019 election budget criminally-minded, wants it rejection

Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has picked holes in the N189.2 billion budget for the 2019 general elections presented to the National Assembly by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Describing the budget as “fraudulent, criminal and highly unsustainable,” the non-governmental organisation called on the legislature not to give in to alleged propaganda and executive blackmail to approve the budget.

HURIWA stated this in a statement signed by its national coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, on Friday where he also accused INEC hierarchy of being deliberately averse to openness, transparency and accountability in the proposed budget.

According to the group, INEC adopted opaque nomenclatures and sub-heads to mask their deliberate plots to probably swindle the Nigerian state of huge amount of public fund in the guise of conducting election.

HURIWA further condemned what it described as extensive delay tactics adopted by the Federal Government in presenting the proposed 2019 election budget.

It wondered how a government said to be fighting corruption could have waited until the eleventh hour before presenting a budget for a national event of significance such as a general election that is only few months away.

While it also condemned INEC’s current hierarchy for its alleged failure to open up the procurement activities that take place within the agency, the group called on the National Assembly to conduct extensive forensic examination of the specific components of the overall budget of N189.2 billion presented to it by INEC.

This it said, will help to bring the entire budget to comply with extant provisions governing procurement in accordance with the Bureau of public procurement Act.

“We urge the National Assembly not to capitulate under the heavyweight of propaganda and executive blackmail to approve this criminally- minded budget that has just been presented by INEC.

“The suspicious sub-heads in that budget proposal includes the N5.124 billion budgeted for nationwide continuous voter registration exercise which is a big scam going by the universal truth that update of voter registration is about winding up. Also the incredible amount of N4.689 billion voted for feeding of security operatives for the election is simply a smokescreen to cover up for the anticipated heist that will happen the moment the cash drops in INEC’s treasury.

READ ALSO : 2019 POLLS BUDGET: Disparities forces Nat’l Assembly to summon INEC boss again

“The N4.614 billion classified as miscellaneous expenses is fraudulent and must never be approved just as the other components of N134.427 billion for election operation cost and N22.660 Billion for election administrative cost are duplication meant to conceal the cash that would inevitably be siphoned. The budget for payment of foreign observers lacks credibility and should be discarded,” part of the statment read.

Noting that the entire proposal was the biggest scam of the century, HURIWA called on Nigerians of goodwill to speak up and monitor INEC closely to stop the leadership of that agency from destroying “our hard earned democracy through subterfuge and deliberate sabotage.”

It added, “We believe that the entire exercise of presenting the 2019 Election budget in August 2018 when it could have been done in January is a motive for sabotaging the smooth conduct of the election or it might be a poorly crafted strategy to blackmail the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to approve the shambolic budget which invariably contains many suspicious sub-heads that are just the well choreographed schemes to siphon public fund in this era of severe economic adversity.”

 

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