The senate has approved the N189bn budget for the 2019 general election as proposed by INEC in the supplementary budget.
The budget was slashed by 7.9bn.
The red chamber said the approval was necessary to enable Nigeria prepare adequately for the elections.
Speaking at a meeting on the submission of harmonised report of INEC 2019 general election supplementary budget estimates of the Senate Committee on Appropriations in Abuja, Senator Danjuma Goje (APC, Gombe Central), explained that after an exhaustive debate on report of joint committee on INEC and President Muhammadu Buhari’s latest letter, the committee decided to approve the entire N189 billion election budget for INEC.
Goje explained that INEC was allocated N143,512,529,455 as recommended by President Buhari for the 2019 general election in 2018 budget, the balance of N45,695,015,438 was requested for appropriation under 2019 budget.