INEC spent over N100m on Dino Melaye recall exercise – Chairman
…Absolves Commission from Kano underaged voters saga
The Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, has disclosed that the Commission spent a little over N100million on the failed exercise to recall Senator Dino Melaye by the people of Kogi West senatorial district.
The INEC boss stated this in Abuja on Friday while fielding question from journalists at a press conference he addressed at INEC headquarters on the Kano State local government election.
Yakubu said that substantial part of money went into payment of ad-hoc staff engaged by the Commission in the April 29,m2018 recall exercise.
He also denied the allegation that INEC planned to create additional 30,000 polling units ahead of next year poll.
He said, “INEC is not creating 30,000 polling units. There is no time between now and the 2019 general elections to create new polling units. The logistic and arrangement for doing so is certainly not available”
Speaking on findings of the committee set up to investigate the allegation of underaged voters that participated in the last Kano State Local Government election, the INEC boss said, “The interest of INEC is not in the conduct of the election but in the allegation of underaged votes”.
Yakubu said the Commission could not be held accountable for underaged voting because it was the Kano State Independent Commission (KASIEC) that conducted the council polls using voters register supplied by INEC.
He said the only connection between INEC and KASIEC is that INEC gave KSIEC the voters registers used in the conduct of the election, adding that INEC found out that the voters register was not even used in many voting centres.
Yakubu said, “For the avoidance of doubt, let me emphasise first, that INEC was not in any way involved in organising the Kano State Local Government election beyond the legal requirement that the register of voters compiled by INEC should be used in all local government elections nationwide. The conduct of a that election was entirely the responsibility of KANSIEC.
“Secondly, let me also emphasise that the investigation committee was not established to inquire into the general conduct of the Kano State Local Government election or to inquire into the organisation or challenges of KANSIEC. Indeed, INEC has no legal remit to do so.
“Rather, as the Terms of Reference of the Committee showed, its role was strictly to inquire into claims linking the register of voters compiled by INEC and the alleged incidents of underaged voting in the election”.
The chairman stated that findings and recommendations of the committee adopted by INEC include the fact that; the register was substantially not used to accredit voters before voting.
He said, “It is logical to conclude that if underaged voting occurred in the election, it was not due to any presence of underaged registrants on the register of voters.
“After examining some of the images in circulation, the committee found that they have been available long before the Kano local government elections. The few images and video clips from Kano show no accreditation of voters or any relationship with the register of voters”.
He said the current voters register contains 68.8 million valid entries, which is the largest single database of Nigerians in existence.
Yakubu added that under the present INEC, only 432,233 new registrants have been added to the national voters register, representing 0.9% increase on the register used for the 2015 general elections.
According to him, between April 2017 when the CVR commenced to December same year, some 3,981,502 new registrants were recorded, including figures from Anambra State governorship election held in November 2017.
“This commission is convinced that we now have a dependable register, even if it is not perfect. We believe that it is a huge national asset, easily the largest database of Nigerians in existence today containing over 70 million entries of names, addresses, photographs, 10 fingerprints, telephone numbers etc”.
