2019: Dogara speaks on election funding being under threat

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, has said that funding of the 2019 general elections was not under any threat.

The Speaker said this while addressing reporters at the National Assembly on Tuesday.

According to him, provisions had been made for such contingencies under the Service Wide Votes.

Dogara pointed out that there was about N300 billion Service Wide Votes provision in the 2018 budget that could be used to fund the election.

He reaffirmed that as custodians of the mandate of the Nigerian people, the House of Representatives would give priority to issues affecting Nigerians

The lawmaker said that all pending matters, Electoral Act inclusive, would be given accelerated attention.

Dogara said, “You see we are servants of the people by our calling as Representatives of Nigerians and we don’t have the right to put our interests before the interests of the people.

“We are here to serve the public. These issues are outstanding and it was never going to be threatened in any way as was widely perceived.

“This is because we have a provision in the budget for Service Wide votes, about N300 billion and whatever emergency would have been met from that Service Wide Votes that we have allocated in the budget.

“As we are back, we have set ourselves to accomplish what is in the interest of the people.”