The Independent National Electoral Commission has given reasons why it awarded a contract to Binani Printing Press Limited.
This followed linkage of the firm to a governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Aishatu Dahiru Ahmed.
Ahmed, popularly known as Binani, is the governorship candidate of the APC in Adamawa State.
Reacting to the news in a statement on Thursday, INEC Commissioner and Chairman Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, said there was no link between Ahmed and Binani Printing Press Limited as far as documents showed.
Okoye said the contract was awarded to the company purely on competence basis.
He said: “Our attention has been drawn to a news report that the Commission awarded a contract for the printing of sensitive election materials to Aishatu Dahiru Ahmed. It was alleged in the report that she owns Binani Printing Press Limited.
“Procurements in the Commission go through open competitive bidding and Binani Printing Press Limited was one of the security printing companies that applied to print security documents for the Commission. After inspecting the company’s facility and carrying out due diligence at the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), the Commission was satisfied that they are qualified printers with the requisite technical capacity, security consciousness and expertise in printing security documents. However, Aishatu Dahiru Ahmed was not listed as one of the Directors of Binani Printing Press Limited.
“The Commission decided to print all the security documents for the 2023 General Election in the country to help Nigerian printers and assist in growing the national economy.
:The Commission will continue to carry out due diligence in its procurement activities.”