Eniola Akinkuotu, Ifeanyi Onuba and Olaleye Aluko
The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps will need N310m to feed and administer drugs to dogs that will be deployed in states for the 2019 elections.
The Nigeria Police Force will also require N7m to feed 50 horses that would be used for patrol during the elections which will take place between February 16 and March 2, 2019.
The information is contained in the 2018 virement proposal sent to the National Assembly for the 2019 general election by President Muhammadu Buhari.
The total police budget for the elections stands at N30.5bn; the Office of the National Security Adviser, N4.2bn; the Department of State Services, N12.2bn; NSCDC, N3.5bn and the Nigeria Immigration Service, N2.6bn.
Buhari, in a letter he wrote to the National Assembly on Tuesday, requested a total virement of N228.8bn, largely allocated to new projects “inserted” in the 2018 by the National Assembly to offset part of the proposed cost of funding the 2019 general elections.
The balance of N242bn needed to fund the 2019 elections will be captured in next year’s budget.
According to the details of the 2018 virement request the President submitted to the National Assembly, the NSCDC needs N1.2bn this year to prepare for the elections.
The virement request reads, “Medical and general expenses for dogs, N143,782,000; feeding of dogs: N166,315,000.
“Hiring of speedboats: N499,500,000; welfare packages (contingency of N7,000 per state and FCT) N259m; accommodation allowances for monitors: N185,000,000.”
According to the virement document, police election budget this year stands at N679m, with N7.7m earmarked for feeding of horses and N100m for printing of non-security materials.
The police also asked for N87.5m for the maintenance of aircraft and N407m for maintenance of the vehicles to be used for election monitoring.
The budget states in part, “Feeding of 50 horses: N7, 719, 454; maintenance of existing vehicles for 2019 elections for the period of 20 days: N407, 400, 000.”
Immigration wants N126m to print name tags
In the virement details, the NIS also requested N126m for printing name tags for its personnel that would be involved in the elections while N166m was requested for pre-election training.
The DSS, in the virement request would need N2.9bn to prepare for the polls this year.
The DSS requested N2.2bn for local election and travel allowances while N100m was earmarked for perception management involving stakeholders, political parties and traditional/religious leaders.
About N120m was budgeted for fuelling generators during the elections which will last for 21 days while N100m was set aside for post-election investigations.
In the N1.6bn virement details, the ONSA requested N250m for a national election crisis response exercise involving all security agencies and relevant ministries, departments and agencies.
About N200m was budgeted for the deployment of equipment including satellites while N130m was earmarked for election monitoring.
In his letter which was sent to both chambers of the National Assembly, the President said the figures had been subjected to “the usual budget evaluation.”
The breakdown of INEC’s budget was, however, not stated in the proposal sent to the National Assembly.Click to continue reading.
