Jega
By Abdulrahman Abdulrauf
Abuja
Former Head of State, General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd), has challenged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to account for the N100 billion it took from the federal government for the conduct of the 2011 general elections. He told Nigerians to stand up and demand explanation on how the commission expended the money.
Buhari claimed that most of the money was cornered by persons he described as faceless and corrupt politicians.
The presidential candidate for the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) in the 2011 presidential poll spoke while responding on behalf of other awardees at the 2011 edition of the Leadership Conferences and Award Ceremony, organised by Leadership Conferences Limited, a subsidiary of the Leadership Newspapers Group.
At the event, former Lagos state governor, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, was named “Person of the Year 2010,” while Buhari bagged “Politician of the Year 2010,” while the Edo state governor, Comrade Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole, was conferred with the “Governor of the Year 2010″ award.
In attendance were all governors of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) states, as well as their federal, and state lawmakers.
In his remarks, Buhari alleged that the electoral commission is yet to justify the money it collected from the government.
Recalling how he fought for 50 months at the tribunal when he contested both the 2003 and the 2008 elections, the CPC presidential candidate, who is at the tribunal to challenge the victory of President Goodluck Jonathan, said the nation’s electoral system was fraught with inadequacies.
He said, “I want you people to take note of three things about INEC. INEC asked for N87 billion. Reliably, I learnt they were given about N100 billion. They said they had registered 73.5 million Nigerians, their fingerprints taken at the polling units from ward through local government to state, that fingerprints were being recorded with the biometric data available.
”The first thing that our legal team asked was to have all of these (registration and fingerprints) because there were no elections in 20 states. This was stood down. So, how can INEC account for N100 billion for doing nothing? It’s very important. Nigerians must insist on this, because if we can donate N100 billion to faceless officials and corrupt officials and, then, we say it’s against the security of the country to bring evidence as contained in the act, then something is wrong.”
In his reaction, the Chief Press Secretary to INEC, Mr. Kayode Idowu, said if it is the money appropriated in the budget, they are for certain purposes and the balance would certainly be returned to the treasury, saying the question of foul play did not arise.
Idowu said, “In this regard, our books are very clear. For us at the commission, we do not have anything to hide. All our spendings were rightly captured as indicated in the Appropriation Act.
”And on the second leg of not having access to the data, the court had ruled and we abide by that. The General needs not make it a media issue.”
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