The Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, has defended the Senate’s ongoing amendment of the Electoral Act, saying critics are misjudging lawmakers based on an incomplete legislative process.
Akpabio insisted that the Senate did not remove electronic transmission of election results in the amendment of the Act.
According to a statement shared with Sunday PUNCH, the Senate President spoke in Abuja as special guest of honour at the unveiling of a book, The Burden of Legislators in Nigeria, authored by Senator Effiong Bob.
He noted that the lawmakers only questioned the requirement for real-time transmission.
The clarification follows criticism from key stakeholders and opposition parties over reports that the Senate had rejected mandatory real-time electronic transmission of election results in the amended Electoral Act.
The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) on Saturday called on the Senate to include mandatory electronic transmission of election results in the Act.
In a statement shared on X (formerly Twitter), the NBA described the Senate’s decision to retain the “current wording in the Electoral Act—which allows results to be transferred in a manner as prescribed by the Commission”—as weakening the legal foundation for transparent elections and leaving room for manipulation and ambiguity.
