INEC spent over N100m on Dino’s recall – Prof. Yakubu

The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, says the commission spent a little over N100 million on the failed recall process of the senator representing Kogi West Senatorial District, Dino Melaye.

Prof. Yakubu spoke yesterday following reports that the commission spent N100billion on the process at a press conference to brief Nigerians on the report of a committee set to probe alleged underage voting in the recent Kano State local government election.

Prof. Yakubuc said the report of the committee which was revealed yesterday revealed that KSIEC did not use the INEC voter register to accredit voters before the Kano election.

He said since the voters’ registers were not in use in most polling units the commission was not responsible for the alleged under aged voting, stressing that INEC had not been linked with the presence of underage registrants on the register.

The INEC chairman said the commission’s involvement in the said election was only limited to its legal requirement of providing the voters’ register.

He, however, restated that the committee’s assignment did not cover the general conduct of the election, adding that INEC had no legal authority to investigate the Kano SIEC.

Prof Yakubu, who said that the Kano incident had provided the commission an opportunity to take another look at the register, particularly through removal of ineligible registrants, enjoined Nigerians to work with INEC to make the 2019 general elections the best ever.

Stating that the commission had added only 432, 233 new registrants to the voters’ register under the present management, he added that the electoral body had recorded 3, 981,502 voters since the commencement of the continuous voters registration exercise in 2017. He said they would soon be added to the national register.