A member of the House of Representatives, Ado Doguwa has said that he needs N70m in “hard copy” for election expenses.
Doguwa made the comment on Thursday after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Aso Rock villa in Abuja.
He noted that the scarcity of the naira crunch will affect the electioneering expenses of politicians, running for office irrespective of their party affiliations.
He added that there are no banks, or ATMs in many places to ensure that party agents and others are paid during the election.
“I need to have this N70m in hard copy. That is the position of the law and as I speak to you, I don’t have it,” the House leader said in reference to Section 88(4) of the Electoral Act which caps election expenses for House of Representatives seats at N70,000,000.
Doguwa said that the naira redesign policy is not good for the APC because Nigerians who are not happy see it as a policy of APC government.
“And don’t forget the point I made as a partisan member that the policy in itself is against the ruling party because Nigerians that are not happy will look at it as a policy of the government of the APC. This has placed us at disadvantage already,” he added.
“Some of us see a lot of good things about the policy, but our worry as members of the ruling party is, why now?
“30-40 days to elections you come out with a policy that is not widely accepted by Nigerians and whether we like it or not that will be seen as the program of the government,” he said.
“So those of us in the APC are not happy about it,” Doguwa maintained.
Ifunanya Ikueze is an Engineer, Safety Professional, Writer, Investor, Entrepreneur and Educator.