2019 polls: Senate approves N53b for security agencies

The Senate has approved N53 billion for the operations of security agencies for the 2019 general election.
The Senate had last week approved N188 billion for the Independent National Electoral Commission to enable the Electoral body procure materials for the 2019 general election.
The total fund requested for the conduct of the elections by President Muhammadu Buhari was N242 billion.
The balance of the fund for elections was presented for consideration by the Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriations, Senator Danjuma Goje.
Speaking on budget, Goje said N4.2 billion is earmarked for Office of the National Security Adviser; Department of State Services – N12.2 billion; Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps – N3.5 billion; Nigeria Police Force – N30.5 billion; and Nigerian Immigration Service – N2.6 billion.
The fund will be sourced from the recurrent and capital components of Special Intervention Programme captured in the Service Wide Votes of the 2018 Appropriation Act.
According to the Committee’s report, the approval was given having considered the report of its sub-committees on INEC, Security and Intelligence, Interior and Police Affairs in respect of the provision for INEC, NSA, DSS, NSCDC and NIS and NPF respectively.