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Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is seeking an alternative to the Central Bank of Nigeria for keeping its election materials.
INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu revealed this in a statement on Saturday at a programme called ’The Elctorate’ organised by Enough Is Enough Nigeria.
Yakubu said sensitive election materials will not routed through Nigeria’s apex bank due to prevailing circumstances.
The Governor of Nigeria’s Central Bank, Godwin Emefiele had been linked with an interest in becoming Nigeria’s next President and had publicly suggested this by suing the Nigerian government and INEC for stopping him from contesting.
The INEC Chief, Yakubu said while the relationship with the national financial regulator has been smooth, new realities have necessitated an alternative to the CBN.
“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 e 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.”
