Nearly two years after the conduct of the 2019 general elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is still battling with cases arising from the election.
READ ALSO: Ekiti Govt Discovers 362 Ghost Workers In LGs
Chairman of the electoral body, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, who was fielding questions from journalists after appearing before the Senate Committee on INEC, on Wednesday, said the commission was presently involved in over 1,700 cases in various courts across the country.
He said, “Each time anyone goes to court, INEC is joined. But we have to hire lawyers to defend us. We are not paying fantastic fees; we are applying the federal ministry of justice scale of fees.
“If, for instance, you have a case for a governorship election before the Supreme Court, it’s a maximum of N4.5m but others could be as low as N3m.
“We are almost getting close to 1,700 pre-election and post-election cases in 2019 alone. And every day you hear people going to court and joining INEC.”
Breaking down the number, Yakubu explained that there were about 860 pre-election and 807 post-election cases, adding that the figure was still on the rise.
Yakubu revealed that, the commission was planning to take N5.2bn from the INEC fund established in 2010 to augment the shortfall in its 2020 budget which was slashed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
He noted that without adequate funding, the Commission cannot be independent.
“The commission cannot be independent unless it is financially independent. There are some activities that happen that are time bound or bound by some specific provisions of the constitution that the commission has to undertake.
“The fund was established to allow the commission to discharge those responsibilities. It was established in 2010 but there was no cause to spend from it, and from the last five years this commission did not spend from it.”
“What has happened now is our budget for 2020 dropped to N40bn from N45.5 bn in 2019.
“Also, as a result of the 10 per cent COVID-19 cut, it further dropped to N36bn in the middle of the year when we had already made preparation for expenditure.
“Therefore, since that fund (N10m) is made for the rainy days, we are taking part of the fund to balance our budget for this (2020) year.”
