Senate to investigate INEC over postponement of elections

…..Ninth Assembly ‘ll be vibrant, – Sen Gaya

BY Mathew Dadiya, Abuja

The Senate has said that it would investigate the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for shifting the general elections earlier slated for February 16 and March 2, which was changed to February 23 and March 9, 2019.

Speaking to State House correspondents at the Presidential Villa Abuja, the Chairman, Senate Committee on Works, Senator Kabiru Gaya said that the commission had no reason to have postponed the elections because all that they required to conduct a credible exercise was provided to them.

Gaya said that the senate would commence the investigation of the electoral umpire upon its return from recess after the governorship election.

Speaking on his assessment of the performance of the electoral umpire at the just concluded Presidential and National Assembly elections, he said: “I was happy at the day one when they shifted the elections and I said still after shifting the election we will call them and we will investigate the INEC for shifting the election because it caused a poor turnout.

“We will find out the reason – if it is funding, we gave them enough funding, if it was issue of security, the security agencies were ready. So why should INEC shift the elections? We are going to investigate that when we come back after the governorship election. But sadly, generally they did what they could do, I could say, it’s a pass mark.”

On the kind of senate that will be expected in the Ninth Assembly, Senator Gaya said, Nigerians should expect a humble senate, a vibrant senate and a senate that will work with Mr. President for the good of the country.

He said, “We will give President Buhari all the cooperation that is needed so that we can have a smooth ride, a smooth process, a smooth passage of the budget, a smooth oversight and a relation between the executive and the legislature. We hope by God’s grace we will give him that support.

“We thank almighty Allah for given us the life, the strength and the ability to President Muhammadu Buhari the opportunity to contest for a second term and to win the election with a very wide margin.

“I remember when I was inspecting one of the roads in Nigeria here, at that time, President Buhari was abroad, I said President Buhari will, insha Allah, commission that road in his first term and also in second term, he will do the second part of the road. People doubted me, but thank God, God has done it – President Buhari has ran for election and he has won the election.”

The senator said that he was not surprise that President Buhari won the February 23 presidential poll because he has done so much for the country.

Citing some of the achievements that contributed to the president’s victory for a second term, Gaya said, the drastic drop in the importation of rice from 100 percent to five percent, roads and railway projects.

“I am the Chairman, Senate Committee on Works, so I know that the budget for the 2014 before President Buhari came in was N22 billion. But when Buhari came into office the budget moved up to N220 billion and you can see now the budget is between N300 billion to N400 billion in 2019. Therefore, the roads that were neglected for nineteen years are now motorable. Also, agricultural, the importation of rice has dropped from 100 percent to only five percent,” he added.

He expressed happiness for President Buhari’s victory saying that the election was peaceful and Kano State “has delivered even though the turnout was very low.”

“I believe most of the problem was that INEC shifted the elections and people thought that the election would shift again and they couldn’t come out to vote. We had just about 30-40 percent turnout all over the country.

“But be that, Kano has delivered, we had the highest number of votes and I think we could say that we are part of the determining factors for President Muhammadu Buhari reelection because he has really done so much for us – the dualisation of Kano-Abuja road and the railway project and so on.

“We are very happy that President Buhari has done that and we believe we will do better. We from the National Assembly, I assure you, I am coming in as a senator for the fourth term – 16 years I am one of the few ranking senators in the senate and I thank God for being in the senate,” the forth term senator -elect added.