The Chairman of the House of Representatives Special Ad-hoc Committee on Cashless Policy, Naira Redesign and Currency Swap and Leader of the House, Ado Doguwa, has told President Muhammadu Buhari that going into the election without “hard cash” will put the politicians at a disadvantage irrespective of the political party they belong to.
While fielding questions from State House correspondents, he affirmed that each member of the House of Representatives is entitled to N70 million cash to pay polling agents and for other election running costs, saying that if they have no hard cash, they will be disadvantaged in the exercise.
Checks by QUEST TIMES reveals that Doguwa’s claims seem to contravene the 2022 Electoral Act.
Section 88 subsection 4 of the 2022 Electoral Act states “the maximum amount of election expenses to be incurred by a candidate in respect of Senatorial and House of Representatives seat shall not exceed N100,000,000 and N70,000,000, respectively.”
The Electoral Act made mention of “election expenses” but never said expenses must be in CASH as claimed by the lawmaker.
The claim of the lawmaker is therefore, FALSE.