The Senate did not delete the real-time electronic transmission of election results in the Electoral Act Amendment Bill passed by the upper chamber on Wednesday, a group of senators has said.
The clarification followed controversy over the retention of Section 60(3) of the 2022 Act, which makes it discretionary for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to electronically transmit polling unit results in real time.
Section 60(3) of the bill, as recommended by the Senator Simon Lalong Committee on Electoral Matters, provides that: “The Presiding Officer shall electronically transmit the results from each polling unit to IReV portal in real time and such transmission shall be done after the prescribed Form EC8A has been signed and stamped by the Presiding Officer and/or countersigned by the candidates or polling agents available at the polling unit.”
However, during clause-by-clause consideration of the bill on Wednesday, Senate President Godswill Akpabio announced that Clause 60 was adopted “as amended and not as recommended”.
Twenty-four hours later, thirteen serving senators from across party lines, led by Enyinnaya Abaribe (PDP, Abia South), addressed journalists covering the National Assembly to dispel what they described as a wrong impression of the Senate’s position.
Abaribe said the lawmakers decided to brief the media to correct reports suggesting that the Senate had removed electronic transmission of results from the bill.
He stressed that the Senate did not reject electronic transmission and assured Nigerians that senators would closely monitor the provision until the final version of the bill is transmitted to the President for assent.
“To put the record straight, yesterday (Wednesday), the Senate did not, I repeat, did not pass transfer of results which was in the 2022 Act,” Abaribe said.“What we passed, and which the Senate President himself said, when he was doing a clarification, sitting on his chair, is electronic transmission of results,” he added.
According to him, the briefing was organised to reassure Nigerians that the provision on electronic transmission of results remains firmly in the bill and will be protected through the legislative process.
“I can assure you on my own, and on all of us who are standing 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 all agreed on Section 60(3), which is electronic transmission of votes, or electronic transmission of results,” Abaribe stated.
Also speaking, Senator Abdul Ningi (PDP, Bauchi Central) described reports that the Senate had rejected electronic transmission of results as “very painful”.
“Our coming here today is to assure Nigerians that the Senate at no time since September last year, when the whole process for a new Electoral Act for the 2027 general election started, jettisoned the need for legal provision for electronic transmission of election results by INEC,” Ningi said.
He cautioned against what he termed a negative narrative against the Senate and the National Assembly, insisting that lawmakers remain committed to strengthening the credibility of elections.
“This negative trajectory against the Senate and, by extension, the National Assembly should stop. We shall ensure that Section 60(3) of the 2026 Electoral Bill follows what will be transmitted to the President for assent,” he added.
Other senators present at the briefing were Austin Akobundu (PDP, Abia Central), Peter Jiya (PDP, Niger South), Ireti Kingibe (ADC, FCT), Victor Umeh (LP, Anambra Central), Binos Yaroe (PDP, Adamawa South), Kabeeb Mustapha (PDP, Jigawa South West), Khalid Mustapha (PDP, Kaduna North), Mohammed Ogoshi Onawo (APC, Nasarawa South), Aminu Waziri Tambuwal (PDP, Sokoto South), Tony Nwoye (LP, Anambra North), and Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan (PDP, Kogi Central).
