THE House of Representatives on Friday passed the Electoral Act Amendment Bill with the adoption of a mixed process of transmission of election results.
The bill was however passed without the members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) participating as they had earlier staged a walkout when it became obvious that the APC-dominated House was bent on passing the amendment with the controversial section 52 of the bill, which had stoked controversy on the floor of the House on Thursday, thereby compelling the Speaker, Hon Femi Gbajabiamila, to adjourn sitting to Friday.
Section 52(3), as approved reads: “The Commission may transmit results of elections by electronic means where and when practicable.” By this, both manual and electronic transmission of election results are legal.
The Minority Leader, Hon Ndudi Elumelu, led the PDP out of the chamber over the contentious section.
Before the walkout, upon the resumption of the consideration of the report of the House Committee on INEC, Hon Idris Wase, Deputy Speaker and Chairman of the Committee of the Whole, assured the lawmakers that section 52 will be revisited at the end of the consideration.
However, after the consideration of other clauses, Hon Wase attempted to revert to plenary to report progress, but Hon Elumelu raised a point of order that section 52 should be decided before reverting to plenary.
Hon Wase responded that clause 52 was considered on Thursday; hence, the decision can only be changed with a substantive motion for ‘rescission’. In protest, the PDP lawmakers walked out, while the other lawmakers stayed behind to adopt the report. The bill was also passed for a third reading in the absence of the opposition lawmakers.
Hon Elumelu later told National Assembly correspondents that the PDP lawmakers walked out because they cannot be part of “a fake process”.
“We cannot be part of that fake process where they’re depriving Nigerians of their right for their results to be counted accurately. Because e-transmission will guard against rigging and votes can count. But what they have done is to discountenance our agitations that let there be transparency in the next conduct of our elections,” he said.
Elumelu also accused the leadership of the House of preventing Prof Mahmood Yakubu, INEC Chairman, and Prof Umar Garba Danbatta, the Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) from briefing the House. He said those who represented the NCC could not substantiate issues.
“To our greatest surprise upon resumption this morning, we found out that INEC was asked to stay back. We tried to inquire why, they told us that it is because they do not want INEC to be seen to be biased and that was why they deprived INEC from coming. The same with the NCC also; they asked the Executive Vice Chairman not to show up and thereby, he resorted to asking somebody in capacity of a director to show up.
“Even the director himself couldn’t even substantiate issues. The man, while he was making his submission, couldn’t be heard and I asked him, “You are under oath, is it that you could not be heard or are you always like this or stage fright but I was shouted down.”
The bill will still have to go through the conference committee of the National Assembly for harmonisation since both chambers passed two different versions before a final copy will be forwarded to the president for assent.
