IN its determined effort to stem what usually lead to an unholy alliance between the state governors and the resident electoral commissioners (REC), the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has requested for further funding,

Only recently, the former governor of Cross River State, Mr. Donald Duke  gave an insight into how the governors were pocketting the RECs whenever they turned to them for help in the training of  INEC personnel.

The former governor insisted that the practice had always left the electoral body with no option than to dance to the dictates of the governors, thus compromising the body.

The N10 billion, which is apart from the N74 billion earlier approved for INEC, is specifically meant for the voters’ registration exercise across the country.

Also, the 2011 general elections have started generating high interest from the international community as contractors from the United States, Europe and Asia are swarming on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), to take contracts for supply of Direct Data Capture Machines required for voters register for the elections.

The contractors that had signified interest in supplying the equipment are 49 in number, just as the contractors were fully armed with prototypes of the equipment required and the strong memos with which they hoped to convince INEC about  their capabilities to ease the process of voters’ registration.

The foreign contractors, mostly from Germany, United States, United Kingdom, Spain, Canada, China, Japan, Singapore, South Africa and even Nigeria, have been thronging the INEC office for presentation and display of their equipment, each of them showing visible desperation to win the contract for supply of Direct Data Capture Machines.

Each of the foreign contractors, Sunday Tribune learnt, had major fronts who had been pressing buttons on their behalf within the government circles, thus subjecting INEC to gruelling sessions in the task of screening the proposals and equipment being presented before it on Direct Data Capture Machines.

Sunday Tribune can authoritatively report that INEC officials, including Professor Atahiru Jega, have been drawn into marathon sessions of screening the contractors since the past one week, such that all of them work from morning till late in the night on daily basis.

A top official of the commission disclosed to Sunday Tribune that the task of screening the contractors had been tough, considering the eagerness of each of them to convince the officials about the efficacy of the machines they would supply.

He said out of the 49 contractors which formally expressed interest in taking the INEC job, the officials, as at the close of work last week, had only succeeded in screening only 11, stressing that the others would be attended to over the next one week.

The officials, who said INEC top members of staff had been working under tight security, added that the commission had devoted full attention to the task, more so as the INEC chairman too ensured his presence in the closed door screening exercise since it started.

The INEC chairman had requested for the sum of N74 billion as cost for updating voters’ register required for the next general elections, as he had approached both the Senate and House of Representatives for concession of fund for the job.

Jega, while meeting the two committees on electoral matters in the National Assembly, raised an alarm on the danger involved in non-release of the funds which, according to him, could affect the January date set for the election.

Already, both the Senate and the House of Representatives had proceeded on an end of the year recess, and may not resume till October; although the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole, had told his colleagues that they could be recalled at any time to attend to urgent national matters.

President Goodluck Jonathan, who was said to have approved the request by INEC, is now expected to prepare a supplementary appropriation for the N72 billion that INEC requires for final approval by the National Assembly.

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