Reps Approve Buhari’s N831bn Virement For 2019 General Elections

Members of the House of Representatives at Tuesday plenary approved the N831,259,220,255.00 billion request for virement of funds made by President Muhammadu Buhari to finance of the 2019 general elections.

Essentially, the funds were to assist the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC and all relevant security agencies involved in the conduct of the forthcoming election to prepare adequately for the exercise.

Of the amount, the Nigerian Police Force, NPF, has the large chunk of N351,562,210,645.00. Further breakdown of the funds indicated that the Independent National Electoral Commission received a total of N234,507,272,393.00; Office of the National Security Adviser, N46,948,839,426.00; Department of State Security Service N50,791,852,568.00; Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps N82,834,042,256.00 while the Nigerian Immigration Service N64,615,002,968.00.

Recall that President Muhammadu Buhari on July 18, 2018 requested for virement of funds in the Appropriation Act, 2018. Moving the motion titled “Approval of the Request for Virement of funds to Finance the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and Security Agency towards the Preparation for the 2019 General Elections”, Dawaki said

“The House recalls that on Wednesday, July 18,2018, a communication from the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, requesting for virement of funds in the Appropriation Act, 2018 was read at plenary; “Notes that the request was in respect of virement of funds to finance INEC and security agencies towards the preparation for the 2019 general election for which no provisions were made in the 2018 Appropriation Act;

“Aware that the Virement has become necessary in order to appropriate funds to enable the relevant agencies commence preparation towards a free and fair election in 2019; “Also notes that the total amount of virement being proposed for the INEC and other security agencies is N831,259,220,255.00;

“Resolves to approve the Virement of the sum of Eight Hundred and Thirty-One Billion, Two hundred and fifty-Nine million, Two hundred and twenty thousand, and two hundred and fifty-five Naira only to fund the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and security agencies towards the preparation for the 2019 general elections”.

The motion sailed through expressly without any debate on the figure when it was raised by the Chairman of Appropriation Committee, Mustapha Dawaki. Members did not also object the figure, prompting Speaker Yakubu Dogara to hit the gavel for the adoption of the motion.