Udoma, INEC chairman appear before Senate to defend 2019 elections budget

Senator Udoma Udo Udoma

Minister of National Planning, Udoma Udoma, and Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mahmoud Yakubu, on Friday appeared before the Senate to defend the 2019 elections budget.

Udoma and Yakubu stepped into the venue of the meeting of the Joint Committee of the Senate and the House of Representatives Committees on INEC at the Senate building at 12:15 pm.

Chairman of the joint committee, Senator Suleiman Nazif, in his opening remarks reiterated the committee’s commitment to ensuring that INEC got what it deserves to ensure a hitch-free 2019 general elections.

He said, “We are not playing politics with the budget for the 2019 elections. We just want some clarifications.”

INEC had on Wednesday presented the budget to the House of Representatives Committee on Electoral.

Reacting, the committee expressed concern over alleged discrepancies in the budget figures presented by President Muhammadu Buhari and the INEC chairman.