Following the involvement of the Governor of the Central bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, in partisan politics, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has decided it will no longer keep sensitive electoral materials in the nation’s apex bank.
Chairman of INEC, Mahmood Yakubu, said this on Saturday while responding to questions on the Ekiti governorship election.
He insisted the electoral body will not keep its sensitive materials with the CBN.
The INEC chairman further said the ballot papers for the 2023 elections would be printed locally because it has more than 180 days before the 2023 general elections.
Yakubu said it used to print the ballot papers outside Nigeria because of the exigencies of time, which is not the case now.
According to him, this decision is to guarantee that electoral materials for the lined-up elections are not compromised.
He said: “Logistics in an election is much wider than the movement of sensitive material for the election. Take the case of Ekiti for instance, all non-sensitive materials have been delivered to Ado-Ekiti and they are in all the LGAs of the state.
“But sensitive materials are usually delivered on behalf of the commission by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) which are inspected in the presence of the bank and then moved out by our own officials.
“I want to say that since INEC started this collaboration with the CBN, we have never experienced a single issue with the movement of materials. The agency has been such a good partner to the commission.
“But we appreciate the current circumstances, and it is for that reason, pending the time we find an alternative, the materials for the Ekiti election will not be routed through the CBN.
“We will move the material to the airport in Akure and move the material to our office in Ado Ekiti and do the distribution from there.
“We are not going to use CBN. And when it comes to the general election, we have to look for an alternative way of doing it.”
On the continuous voter registration, the INEC chairman said it is only the online registration of voters that was suspended as the transfer and physical registration remain ongoing.
The INEC chairman acknowledged the receipt of the letter from the EFCC to the commission and stated it has replied the provided all the information required by the anti-graft body.
EFCC had in a letter pursuant to sections 38(1) and (2) of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (Establishment) Act, 2004, demanded access to the accounts of the two leading political parties.
INEC said that apart from submitting to the EFCC all it required, accounts of political parties are usually audited six months after the general elections.
