Prof. Yakubu Mahmud, the Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has explained that foreign observers for the 2019 general elections would fund their activities, but would be provided with kits.

He said in Abuja on Friday that the commission had no prepared budgetary allocation for international observers coming to monitor the elections.

Some Civil Society Organisations, including the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), had frowned at the INEC’s budget for the 2019 general elections.

HURIWA described the INEC’s budget as “fraudulent, criminal and highly unsustainable. The budget for payment of foreign observers lacks credibility and should be discarded.”

It also said: “The N4.614 billion classified as miscellaneous expenses is fraudulent and must never be approved just as the win 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.’’

However, the INEC chairman insisted that there was no such budget for the international observers as being peddled in some quarters.

“I have had this question that we have prepared budget for international observers, there is no such thing. There is no line in the budget for international observers.

“What we have provided for are the kits, you know the jackets, caps, publication, that we give to international observers, the stickers that are fixed on their cars to be identified on Election Day.

“This is the standard practice. Each country that organises elections provides these facilities for those who monitor elections.

“But their accommodation, transportation will be borne by various election monitoring groups and not by the Nigerian government.’’

On possibility of postponing the 2019 general elections in view of the delay in the passage of the INEC’s budget for the elections by the National Assembly, Mahmud said there were no conditions under which elections should be postponed.

He said: “Under section 26 of the Electoral Act, the date is formed and fixed, February 16, 2019.

“We issued the timetable way in advance for the very first time in the history of our nation; citizens of Nigeria know when elections will take place one year in advance. It has never happen before.

“Secondly, also for the very first time in the history of our country, that citizens know the budget of the electoral commission, that budget has never been defended before the National Assembly, as citizens know line by line how much the commission proposed, what the money is going to be spent on.

“I think I am very happy with this process.’’(NAN)

The leaders of the National Assembly(NASS) have said that there was no date yet for the National Asembly to reconvene to consider the  N242 billion virement for the 2019 elections.

The president of the Senate Dr Bukola Saraki and his counterpart in the House of Representatives  Yakubu Dogara, disclosed this in a statemnet jointly signed by their Special Advisers on Media and Public Affairs, Yusuph Olaniyonu and Turaki Hassan,

In the statement, they called on all members of the National Assembly as well as the general public to note that no date had been set for the reconvening of the Federal Legislature.

According to them, some relevant committees whose reports are supposed to be considered upon the reconvening of the National Assembly are yet to meet and as such there is no report to be considered.

“The Senate President, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki and Speaker, House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara, have directed that we inform all Senators, Honorable members and the public that a date has not been set for the reconvening of the Senate and the House of Representatives to consider the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) 2019 elections budget request forwarded by President Muhammadu Buhari on July 17, 2018.

“The leadership of the two chambers had met and agreed to reconvene to consider the proposal this week before which a meeting between the Joint Senate and House of Representatives Committees on Electoral Matters and officials of the INEC must have held on or before Monday August 13, 2018.

“The joint committees were also expected to meet with the joint Senate and House Committees on Appropriations, Loans and Debts on the Eurobond loan request after which two reports would have been ready for presentation in the two chambers.

“However, no such meeting had taken place yet as a result of which both Senate and House of Representatives cannot reconvene as there is no report to consider.

“Until the Committees have a ready report for the consideration of the two chambers, it will be most irresponsible to recall members from recess especially those that may have travelled to Saudi Arabia for the Hajj,” it said.

Sen. Godswill Akpabio (APC-Akwa Ibom) said any move to declare his seat vacant in the Senate will prove abortive as it would trigger a domino effect.

Akpabio, who is a lawyer,  made this known in an interview with newsmen in Abuja on Monday.

He said though he has not heard about it, if his seat must be declared vacant, the seats of those, who defected to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), should also be declared vacant. Senate President Bukola Saraki led a dozen senators of the APC to join the PDP in July.

According to him, if the excuse of those calling for his seat to be declared vacant is that there is no rancour in PDP to warrant his defection, they should also know there is no rancour in APC.

“Any defection from APC to PDP, we will like to declare those seats vacant.

“As you are looking at me, do I look perturbed? I have not heard the report.

“I think that is a rumour because at the moment, there is no division in the APC. The APC is one family.

“If you hear about R-APC,  that was not really a political party, that was not a division.

“It has since been consumed in what they call Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP).

On the threat by APC National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole to get the President of the Senate, Dr Bukola Saraki impeached, Akpabio said he was not aware of that.

“I just came in from Ikot-Ekpene, where I decided with my people to join APC. I’m yet to be briefed on any of those items. I have not heard anything.

“Why don’t you wait for me to formally talk to you? I believe that when the National Assembly resumes, you will hear from me directly. So, exercise patience’’, he said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Akpabio, while defecting from PDP to APC, also tendered his resignation as Minority Leader.

Cecilia Ijuo/NAN