Politics
MDAs Defend Budgets
Budget defense sittings and public hearings of the 2018 Appropriation Bill, including those of Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC) and Rivers State Government Bills topped proceedings in the Assembly last week.
Last Monday, budget estimate defence sittings by the various Standing Committees began with Ministries of Education, Works and Information taking turns.
Shortly after his budget defence last Tuesday, Special Adviser to the Governor on Amnesty, Mr Ken Chinda told newsmen that his office executed all the projects contained in its budget from 2016 to 2017 with huge success.
Mr Chinda said: “A lot of the training programmes were conducted for those who embraced amnesty. Of course there were those who sincerely repented”. He cited the friends of Jesus in Gokana and another group at Abua in Abua/Oudal Local Government Area that jettisoned their old ways and took to new life. He explained that the 2018 budget is to sustain the success of the Amnesty Programme and lauded security agencies for their support to the scheme.
The House also sat last Tuesday as the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission Bill (HA10) and the Rivers State Local Government Bill (HA9) passed through to committee stage.
Minority Leader of the House, while commenting on the bills during the House debate, observed that the State Local Government Law have been the most amended. Hon Anabraba stressed the need for the law to be compiled into one piece of legislation, so as to make it easy for the law to be accessible and easy for reference.
The same view was held by the Speaker, Rt Hon Ikuinyi-Owaji-Ibani who frowned that in the past, the local government laws have been in piece meals and need to be compiled into one. “As a third tier of government I believe that the bill will re-enact the local government laws, which is very important and is coming at a crucial time for proper administrations”, he said.
The same view was canvassed by legislators on the RSIEC bill of 2018. The major plank of the amendment is to align the electoral law to the Supreme Court Judgement of 2010, which prescribes 90 days and not 14 days as provided by the amendment done by the last Assembly ahead elections.
Budget defence sittings continued last Wednesday and Thursday with various Ministries, Departments and Agencies appearing before the Statutory House Committee. Rivers State Internal Revenue Service, the office of the State Auditor-General and Auditor-General of the Local Government appeared before Committee on Public Accounts and Finance.
The Ministry of Agriculture also defended its budget estimates with the Commissioner, Mr Charles Nwaorgu and key officials defending its capital and recurrent proposals.
The House convened last Friday shortly after it had conducted public sitting on the RSIEC bill 2018. The plenary witnessed the presentation of the various standing committees submitting their reports on the budget proposal.
Not less than 10 standing committees submitted their report on the 2018 Appropriation Bill. After the House rose from sitting, the Committee on Local Government Affairs chaired by Hon Kelechi Nwogu conducted a public hearing on the 2018 LGA bill (HA9). Many stakeholders presented their memoranda, as Hon Nwogu assured that their views would be inputted in the new legislation.
Prof. Amupitan gave the warning on Saturday, in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, during the South-South Zonal Readiness Assessment and Interactive Staff Engagement organised ahead of the 2027 general elections.
He said insecurity remained a potential challenge to the electoral process but stressed that the Commission would not allow threats against its personnel to undermine its constitutional responsibilities.
“Insecurity may pose a challenge, but our collective constitutional resolve is far stronger. Let me again send a clear message from Port Harcourt: anyone who attempts to threaten, intimidate, or harm our ad-hoc staff, NYSC members, or permanent personnel will be brought to justice under the full weight of the law,” he said.
The INEC Chairman, who was accompanied by National Commissioners, directors and technical aides, disclosed that the South-South engagement was the fifth in a series of zonal assessments, following similar exercises in the South-West, North-West, South-East and North-East.
He explained that his physical presence across the geopolitical zones reflected the Commission’s field-first approach, emphasising that electoral integrity must be established through effective operations at the grassroots.
According to him, the assessment would cover operational preparedness across the 123 Local Government Areas in the six South-South states.
On election security, Prof. Amupitan said INEC had moved away from reactive security arrangements traditionally activated around election day to a proactive, intelligence-driven framework known as the “ICCES Tentacle”.
He explained that the framework was designed to extend inter-agency security coordination from national and state headquarters to local government areas and Registration Area Centres, including remote communities.
He identified three critical pillars of the framework as mapping and mitigating security threats, protecting electoral personnel and infrastructure, and guaranteeing safe access to polling units.
The INEC boss said the security arrangement would provide comprehensive protection for electoral personnel, technological infrastructure, including Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) devices and server infrastructure, as well as voters.
He added that the framework was intended to ensure that every polling unit, irrespective of its geographical location or history of security challenges, remained safe and accessible for the exercise of democratic rights.
Prof. Amupitan disclosed that the South-South security architecture comprised approximately 60 major operational formations, headquarters and state commands operating under the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES).
The network, he said, brings together military, naval, air, police and other security and intelligence agencies across the six states.
“Together, this integrated multi-agency network represents the operational backbone that guarantees intelligence-led protection across every riverine creek, coastal axis, and land-based polling unit in the Niger Delta,” he stated.
Providing an overview of the region’s electoral significance, the INEC Chairman said the South-South had the fourth-largest voting bloc in the country, with 15,823,550 registered voters, representing 15.30 per cent of the national register.
Rivers State alone, he said, accounts for 3,736,434 registered voters spread across the 23 local government areas.
Alhaji Abubakar made the demand following revelations that some INEC registration officers allegedly abused their access to the voter registration system to introduce irregular records into the database.
In a statement issued by his Director of Strategic Communications, Mr Phrank Shaibu, the former vice-president described the development as a serious breach of the Commission’s internal safeguards and raised concerns about the integrity of the electoral process.
He urged INEC to identify the officials implicated in the alleged misconduct and explain what disciplinary or legal measures had been taken against them.
Alhaji Abubakar also called for an independent forensic audit of the preliminary voters’ register to establish the scale of the alleged manipulation, identify affected records and determine how the questionable entries were introduced into the system.
He further insisted that INEC preserve all relevant voter records, image files, system access logs and electronic audit trails to prevent the destruction or alteration of evidence before an independent examination could be conducted.
The former vice-president also demanded that the Commission disclose the identities of companies contracted to produce sensitive election materials ahead of the 2027 polls, arguing that transparency was essential to building public confidence in the electoral process.
INEC’s Director of Information and Communication Technology, Dr Lawrence Bayode, had earlier disclosed during a television interview that some registration officers across the country allegedly used their official login credentials to introduce irregularities into the voters’ database.
Dr Bayode explained that the Commission’s Automated Biometric Identification System helped identify questionable records and establish how some irregularities entered the system.
He, however, clarified that not all suspicious photographs were AI-generated, as some resulted from poor registration procedures.
The development followed public concerns over suspected AI-generated photographs, alleged duplicate entries and other inconsistencies discovered in the preliminary voters’ register published online on October 26, 2026.
INEC has maintained that the published document is a preliminary register and that it is reviewing questionable records ahead of the certification of the final Register of Voters.
The controversy has intensified calls for greater transparency and accountability in the management of the voters’ register as preparations gather momentum for the 2027 general elections.
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