The Senate at its plenary session of Tuesday, 16 October 2018, approved the budget of Security Agencies who are expected to play a role in the conduct of the 2019 General Election following adoption of the report by the Committee on Appropriations.
Presenting the report of the Committee, the Chairman Sen. Danjuma Goje (APC: Gombe) informed the Senate that his Committee had met and considered the reports of its Sub-committees on National Security and Intelligence, Interior, and Police Affairs in respect of the budget provisions for the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA); the Department of State Services (DSS); the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC); the Nigerian Police Force (NPF); and the Nigerian Immigration Service(NIS) respectively.
Giving a brief synopsis on how his Committee had arrived at the recommendations in its report, Sen. Goje explained that it had worked together with relevant sub-Committees on the details of the budget when considering President Muhammadu Buhari ‘s request for the virement of N242, 445,322,600.00 in the 2018 Appropriation Act for the conduct of the 2019 General Elections. He then gave a breakdown of the budget proposed for the security agencies as follows:
- ONSA- N9,481,500,000
- DSS: N10,213,282,455
- NSCDC: N3,573,534,500
- NPF: N27,341,317,433
- NIS: N2,628,143,320
He clarified that the funding for security agencies in the 2019 General Elections would be vired from both the Recurrent and Capital components of the Special Intervention Programme captured in the Service Wide Votes of the 2018 Appropriation Act.
Lastly, he concluded noting that the report also contained recommendations for the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) Budget that was approved by the Senate on Thursday, 11 October 2018.
Click to view the full report of the Committee
