The Senate today concluded that half of the N242 billion budgeted for the 2019 election be deducted from the 2018 budget of 30 federal government agencies.
The motion was presented on Wednesday after the chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriation, Danjuma Goje, explained that the elections could not be funded only by the service wide votes as earlier approved.
In light of the application, about 18 senators who bought into the motion unanimously agreed that N121 billion be removed from the 30 agencies while the other N121 billion be sourced from service wide votes.
According to Goje, “Recall the approval of the Virement/Supplementary budget for INEC and Security Agencies for the conduct of the 2019 General elections in the sum of Two Hundred and Forty-Two Billion, Two Hundred and Forty-Five Million, Fifty Thousand, One hundred Naira [N242, 245, 050,100] only, which is to be funded from the Service Wide Votes on the 16th October, 2018-Senate Resolution (S/RS/027/04/8);
“The Senate is aware that because of some obvious and imminent issues of national socioeconomic importance, the virement/supplementary request cannot be implemented as earlier approved,” Goje affirmed.
See the 30 MDAs and amounts to be deducted from them below:
