2024 budget: N40bn appropriated for INEC ‘grossly inadequate’ — Prof Yakubu… 

The chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, has said that the N40 billion appropriated for the Commission for 2024 was grossly inadequate.

Yakubu made the disclosure on Thursday while speaking before the Senate Committee on INEC led by Senator Sarafadeen Ali.

The INEC Chairman said the N40 billion could only take care of the Commission’s personnel and social contributions.

He maintained that with a personnel cost of about N35 billion, the budget did not make adequate provision for capital, overhead and electoral matters in the 2024 budget.

Checks revealed that apart from bye elections to federal constituencies and senatorial districts, INEC would conduct governorship elections in Edo and Ondo states next year.

Professor Yakubu said INEC would need N89 billion for its operations next year just as he revealed that the sum of N18bn appropriated for his Commission in the 2023 Supplementary Budget has no cash backing.