The Deputy Senate President, Ovie Omo-Agege, on Tuesday said the passage of the Electoral Act by the National Assembly is to pass a message, convincing Nigerians that their votes will count.
“In the course of my remarks, I did try to give assurances to our people that because of the new electoral regime that has been enthroned with the passage of the new Electoral Act, the way and manner we have been cheated in the past will no longer be the case because based on the provisions of the Electoral Act,” he said.
“We are now pretty much guaranteed a fair level of transparency in the process to the extent that most of the toxic votes that have emanated from a lot of places including but not limited to the local government of the sitting governor – Ika North East – a local government that has produced about 65,000, sometimes 73,000 votes in the past when we know that the actual voters there are not any more than 25,000.
“We are celebrating the passage of the Electoral Act because going forward, no vote will count unless that vote is a product of accreditation using the new advanced technology. And that was the message we tried to convey to our people that this time that their votes will count.”
The National Assembly on January 31 transmitted the bill to President Muhammadu Buhari who signed it into law on February 25.