National Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission ( INEC) Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu on Monday laid to rest subsisting allegations of foreign funding stating categorically that the Commission did not receive any direct funding or cash support from international development partners.

Prof. Yakubu disclosed this when he met with the Civil society Organisations (CSO) in Abuja. “Rather, their (International Development Partners) support was totally indirect through civil society organisations and implementing partners working on elections”, he said while correcting the impression in some sections of the public that the Commission received huge sums of money from development partners for the 2023 General Elections.

He explained further: “Indeed, it has been a longstanding policy of the present Commission not to receive direct funding and cash transfers from sources other than the Federal Government of Nigeria”.

Speaking specifically on this year’s general elections, Prof. Yakubu said:” I am glad to report that the printing of all sensitive and non-sensitive materials for the 2023 General Election was entirely done in Nigeria.

“This is the first time in 44 years since the transition to democratic rule in 1979 that this great step was taken and achieved, in spite of the record number of 93.4 million registered voters and over five hundred million ballot papers, result sheets and other documents for the five categories of the main elections and supplementary polls.

“For this reason, the 2023 General Election was held as scheduled for the first time in the last four electoral cycles without a postponement arising from the non-arrival of materials. He said the Commission was also able to expand voter access to polling units for the first time since the initial delimitation exercise in 1996.

“Similarly, we introduced many technology-based innovations, including the physical registration and online pre-registration of voters using the INEC Voter Enrollment Device (IVED, the various portals for the nomination of candidates, party agents and the accreditation of observers and the media.

“We also collected and published data on the distribution of voters not only by age and occupation but also by disability. Within the limits of available resources, we also tried to provide such inclusivity materials as braille jackets and magnifying glasses for some categories of voters with disabilities”, he stressed.

The INEC boss who said there were many challenges encountered before and during the elections specifically mentioned severe cash and fuel situations which were compounded by the perennial insecurity nationwide.

“Their impact on our deployment plans, compounded by the behaviour of some of our own officials in the field, made logistics management particularly challenging.

“The deployment of thugs by some political actors made election day administration difficult in a number of places. While voter accreditation using the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) was very successful, the uploading of results to the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV), especially for the presidential election, encountered a glitch as explained in our statement released by the Commission on 26th February 2023″he said.

While stressing that the Commission was aware that the deployment of technology is currently the subject of litigation and , therefore, would reserve its comments for now, however, insisted that the performance of the technology deployed for the election is part of the ongoing review of the 2023 General Election would form an integral part of the comprehensive report that will serve as a basis for further engagement with stakeholders focusing on specific actions necessary for the improvement of future elections and electoral activities in Nigeria.

Prof. Yusuf disclosed that for the 2023 General Election, the Commission received 538 requests (504 domestic and 34 foreign) for accreditation as observers adding that after a thorough evaluation of the requests, only 228 groups (190 domestic and 38 foreign) met the requirements for accreditation.

He, however disclosed that so far, only 67 observer groups (62 domestic and five foreign) have submitted their observation reports which represents just about 30% of the accredited groups for the election urging all accredited observer groups that are yet to submit their reports to do so in earnest.

Prof Yakubu said the Commission would like to share with the CSOs the Commission’s plans for the upcoming bye-elections and preparations for the off-cycle Governorship elections in Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi States scheduled for Saturday 11th November 2023.

Responding on behalf of the CSOs, the Executive Director, Centre for Transparency Advocacy (CTA), Ms. Faith Neadishi urged her colleagues to forward the report of 2023 elections to the commission as that go a long way in help in improving the electoral process.

She called on INEC to expedite action on the prosecution of election offenders as that would go along way in restoring confidence to the electorate.