INEC IS BROKE! F.G. STILL HOLDING ONTO N25BILLION NAIRA MEANT FOR THE COMMISSION - CHAIRMAN

When members of the House of Representatives Committee on Electoral Matters, led by its chairman, Mr. Jerry Manwe, paid Independent National Electoral Commission a visit on wednesday, the Chairman of the commission told them, that it was broke and might not be able to pay staff salaries, as from next month.

Acting Chairman of INEC, Dr. Abdulkadir Sulaiman, who represented INEC chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, at the occasion, said, “If we don’t do anything about it on time, we may not be able to pay salary by next month.”

He therefore called on the legislators to quickly intervene and save the situation to avoid frustrating the commission’s aspiration of conducting the 2015 general elections in line with international best practices.

He stated that an investigation revealed that the money was being lodged in the Treasury Savings Account of the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation.

He added that, “Out of the N35bn, only N10bn was released to the commission in March, 2012, that is seven months ago. The second quarter of the money was released to the commission last month, that was September, 2012. The commission is yet to access this fund.

“It has sent complaint to the Honourable Minister of Finance requesting for exemption from the TSA scheme in view of the autonomy granted this commission in the 1999 constitution and the 2010 Electoral Act.

“The commission is still awaiting the Honourable Minister’s response.”

Manwe, head of the House Of Reps team said “But some people somewhere wants to sabotage the entire process towards the 2015 elections. God forbid, this committee will never be part of it.

“We are going to invite the Accountant-General of the Federation. In a presentation, jokingly, the Accountant-General of the Federation said money is released promptly to INEC. If it is released to you, where is the money? Is somebody putting it somewhere?”

And he concluded that, an urgent letter would be sent to both the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, and the AGF, Mr. Jonah Otunla, to appear before the House to explain reasons behind the development.