INEC denies collecting N50m from Jigawa govt

From Mika’il Tsoho, Dutse

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has denied that the commission collected the sum of N50 million from the acting Governor of Jigawa state, Barrister Ibrahim Hassan Hadejia, as published in some national dailies.
This denial was contained in a statement signed by the Resident Electoral Commissioner of Jigawa state, Mahmud Isah, which was issued to newsmen yesterday in Dutse, the state capital.
The statement also called on Nigerians to disregard the statement of Jigawa State Deputy Governor, Ibrahim Hassan, as such statement is capable of truncating democracy in Nigeria.
According to the statement, the publication credited to the state deputy governor alleging that the state has assisted INEC office with N50 million during the extension period of the Permanent Voters Cards distribution and Continues Voters Registration (CVR) to facilitate for the smooth running of the exercise in the state was false.
The statement said since the commencement of the Continues Voters Registration in April, 2017 to date, the commissioned has been adequately funded; hence there is no reason to lean on the Jigawa State Government or any organization for any form of logistic support.
“We hereby urge members of the public to disregard the publication as baseless, unfounded and untrue. Also, we are calling on all politicians in the state to desist from making unguided statements capable of truncating our democracy.
“The INEC Jigawa state office, wishes to state in clear terms that, it has not received any amount of money from the state government during the extension period for PVC’s and Continues Voters Registration in the state.
“The commission remains resolute in maintaining of transparency, credibility, fairness in all its electoral duties that will meet national and international standard. We will continue to maintain our neutrality at all times as an independent electoral empire” the statement said.
The statement further noted that, the state office holds the State Government in high esteem as a major stakeholder in election matters, but disagreed with the comment of the Deputy Governor on financial support as contained in the publication.