SaharaReporters had exclusively reported on Wednesday that Binani Printing Press is owned by the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress in Adamawa State, Hajia Aishatu Dahiru Ahmed Binani.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has explained why the commission awarded a contract for the printing of sensitive Electoral materials to a company, Binani Printing Press.
SaharaReporters had exclusively reported on Wednesday that Binani Printing Press is owned by the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress in Adamawa State, Hajia Aishatu Dahiru Ahmed Binani.
Contract documents the newspaper obtained on Wednesday which were signed by the Secretary to the Commission, Rose Oriaran-Anthony, revealed that the APC governorship candidate was awarded N434,372,649 to print election results sheets for the 2023 general elections.
However, reacting in a statement to the report, INEC National Commissioner in charge of the Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, said it decided to award the contract to the Nigerian company to assist in growing the national economy.
Okoye insisted that due diligence was carried and at the point of award, Binani was not listed as a director in the company.
The statement partly read; “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."