A group of Senators in the 10th National Assembly have accused Senate President, Godswill Akpabio of removing the passage of electronic transmission of election results from the Electoral Bill passed during proceeding on Wednesday.
During a press conference yesterday, the senators, led by Enyinnaya Abaribe, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal and Natasha Akpoti, insisted on retaining electronic transmission of election results in the Electoral Bill.
Speaking during the press conference in a video, Abaribe said it was necessary to make a clarification on Wednesday’s proceedings. “To put the records straight, the Senate did not pass the transfer of election results which was in the 2022 Act. What we passed, and which the Senate President himself, when he was doing a clarification, sitting on his chair; is transmission of results.
“I can assure you on my honour, and on the honour of all of us here, that both the electoral committee of the Senate and the ad-hoc committee of the Senate; and also in the Executive session that we had, that we all agreed on Section 60(3) which is electronic transmission of results. Transmit, not transfer”, Abaribe stated.
He further said: “What is in the 2022 Act is transfer, and we don’t want a law that is vague, or can be misinterpreted. We want a law that is clear, concise, and can be interpreted by all and which is unambiguous; so, it is electronic transmission of results”.
The Nigerian Senate on Wednesday announced the passage of the Electoral Act, 2022 (Repeal & Enactment) Bill, 2026, while rejecting a proposed amendment to make electronic transmission of election results compulsory.
The Senate, instead, announced the retainment of the 2022 framework, which mandates manual completion, signing, stamping and distribution of results to party agents and security personnel, with results announced at polling units and transferred in a manner as prescribed by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), without mandating electronic transmission.
Senators also reportedly rejected Clause 47, which sought to allow electronically-generated voter identification (such as downloadable voter cards with QR codes) for accreditation.
The requirement to present a physical Permanent Voter Card (PVC) remains in place and the use of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) or other INEC-prescribed devices for verification was upheld.
