2015 POLLS: INEC SEEKS N92.9BN

Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Attahiru Jega, yesterday disclosed that the commission has proposed to spend N92.9 billion for the conduct of 2015 general elections.
Speaking during a stakeholder’s public hearing to assess INEC’s preparations and challenges ahead of the general election, Jega also said the commission has registered 73.5 million voters for the elections, adding that $7.9 will be spent on each voter.
He also revealed that the commission is working towards conducting the general elections between January and February 2015, adding that elections may be suspended in the three north-east states where there is emergency rule unless there is remarkable peace there before the elections.
In his further presentations to the Senate INEC Committee, Jega emphasised the need for adequate funds to be provided for the 2015 polls, saying “We do recognise that organizing elections is only one of many things requiring funding by government, but the centrality of elections to our collective future is also clear”.

YERIMA: A SENATOR OF MANY CONTROVERSIES

Senator Ahmed Sani Yerima and former Governor of Zamfara State is no stranger to controversies. When civil society organisations called for his head after “his victory” at a Senate vote on the concept of “full age” for female Nigerians, it was a familiar turf.

Fifty-three-year-old and heavily bearded Senator Ahmed Sani, popularly known as Yerima, became a household name in Nigeria since 1999 when the country returned to democratic rule. One of the 36 governors voted into power in that year, Yerima became popular following his introduction of the Shari’a legal system in his Zamfara State in year 2000. Other states governors in the North embraced the legal system and introduced it in their states. Since then he has been associated with several controversies, the latest being the age in which a female Nigerian is qualified to renounce her citizenship.

REJECT APC, FACE MASS ACTION, YERIMA TELLS INEC

After he was detained in Kaduna State by the police yesterday for four hours, former governor of Zamfara State Ahmed Sani Yerima has insisted that he would not be cowed.

He was arrested at the end of a two-hour Hausa radio programme entitled “Hannu Da Yawa” on the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) over his comment on the formation of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The former governor had, during the programme, stated that “if there is any attempt by anybody or in any quarter to refuse the APC registration, we can go as far as having a peaceful protest 24 hours until our demand is granted”.

FORMER GOV OF ZAMFARA STATE, AHMED YERIMA ARRESTED IN KADUNA

The police on Saturday arrested former Governor of Zamfara, Sen. Sani Yerima over alleged ``inciting’’ comments on a live radio programme run by Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN), Kaduna.

The Commissioner of Police in the state, Mr Olufemi Adenaike , led policemen in six hilux vehicles to surround the radio station and arrest the senator immediately after the Hausa programme, Hannu Da Yawa, at about 12:30pm.

Though Yerima was allowed to drive in his car to the state Police Command Headquarter, his car was sandwitched by the police vehicles.