Mahmood Yakubu, the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, says the much anticipated 2023 general elections may be disrupted by the scarcity of new naira notes as well as the lingering fuel crisis.
Prof. Yakubu, said this during a meeting with the Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emefiele at the CBN headquarters, Abuja, on Tuesday.
The INEC boss explained that many service providers to the electoral umpire had no bank accounts.
He, therefore, solicited the support of the apex bank to address the concern related to the CBN cash withdrawal policy which had caused chaos across the country.
The CBN had last year pegged weekly cash withdrawal limits set for individuals and corporate organisations to N500,000 and N5 million, respectively amidst the introduction of currency redesign policy which involves the issuance of new N1000, N500 and N200 notes last December, but explaining his concern to the CBN governor, Yakubu said the service providers needed to be paid fully or partly, adding that there were fears about the withdrawal limits.
In his response, Godwin Emefiele, the CBN governor said ‘’it is not just about cash and you have done electronic payments before and if in this case after making your electronic payments, you require some money to pay transporters, in this case, cash; the assurance I give to you is that we will make it available so it is nothing to worry about.
Same Tuesday, the INEC boss also met with the National Security Adviser, Maj. Gen. Babagana Monguno rtd., who assured Nigerians of a secured voting atmosphere, saying the security personnel were well prepared ahead of the poll.
The NSA noted, “We had several meetings with the chairman of INEC, the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security, which I co-chair. We know what we have done. We are sure of what we have on the ground.
“All of us here who are the managers of security in the electoral process know what we are doing. We are not in any way in doubt but we need to let the entire country know that agents of bad news are peddling all kinds of stories we see on social media. If these are intended to scare people, I want to dispel such illusions.
“Everybody that is concerned in carrying out his legitimate undertaking, casting his or her vote will do so in a secure atmosphere. It’s very important that Nigerians are not pushed to the limit where they will abandon their number one responsibility as citizens. All security agencies are up to the task.’’
On his part, the INEC chairman said the commission was confident that the recent security actions would further reassure voters, its officials, service providers and stakeholders of their safety during the election.
Yakubu appreciated the security assurances from the NSA and other security chiefs.
“We are aware that additional security has been deployed in our facilities nationwide. We also note the increasing tempo of activities in many troubled spots nationwide.
“We are confident that these actions will further reassure voters, our personnel, service providers, and stakeholders of their safety during elections and a free, fair and peaceful process. We look forward to a comprehensive plan for the deployment of security personnel,” he noted.
