By Abiola Olawale
The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to give a comprehensive account of the ₦55.9 billion allocated and spent for the recent general elections.
The non-governmental body asserted that transparency regarding the deployment of these public funds is crucial for upholding the integrity of Nigeria’s electoral process and ensuring the populace’s right to know.
SERAP said the allegations were taken from the latest annual report released by the Auditor-General of the Federation on September 9, 2025.
In the letter dated December 6, 2025, and signed by its deputy director, Kolawole Oluwadare, SERAP urged INEC to release the names and details of the contractors involved in the transactions.
The letter reads in part: “INEC must operate without corruption if the commission is to uphold Nigerians’ right to participation in their own government,” SERAP said, adding that, “Allegations of corruption in the supply of smart card readers, ballot papers, result sheets and other election materials directly undermine Nigerians’ right to participate in elections that are free, fair, transparent, and credible.”
The organisation said the Audit Report revealed several “grave violations of constitutional and international standards,” urging the INEC chairman to refer the case to anti-corruption agencies “to ensure the full recovery of proceeds of corruption.”
SERAP quoted the Auditor-General as saying that INEC “irregularly paid over ₦5.3bn to a contractor for the supply of smart card readers for the 2019 general elections.”
The audit stated that the commission made the payment “without any document or any evidence of supplies to the commission.”
The Auditor-General rejected INEC’s defence that the procurement was exempted for national security reasons, describing the claim as “alien to the Procurement Act.”
The report said,” INEC ought to have received a Certificate of No Objection from the BPP for the contract.”
On ballot papers and result sheets, the report noted that INEC “paid over ₦4.5bn to six contractors,” but “the payments were without any documentary evidence of supply.” It added that there was “no evidence of advertisement, bid submission, bid evaluation, approvals, and no Certificate of No Objection.”
The Auditor-General also noted that INEC provided “no evidence of the contractors’ eligibility,” listing missing documents including “tax clearance certificate, pension clearance certificate, NSITF certificate, ITF certificate of compliance, and BPP registration.”
