By Gift Chapi Odekina
The House of Representatives has passed the Electoral Act amendment Billll, but not without stern opposition from minority members who staged a walk out.
There was disagreement, mostly along political party lines over a suggestion that the Act should explicitly provide for the conduct of election and transmission of results to be done electronically, a move that created crisis on the floor on Thursday.
At the resumed consideration of the report on Friday however, attention was not given to the contentious clause 52(2) by Deputy Speaker Idris Wase, prompting another protest by opposition lawmakers.
The plenary turned rowdy again, when the deputy speaker attempted to continue the consideration without recourse to the controversial contentious clause, when Deputy Minority Leader, Toby Okechukwu through a point of order insisted that when they came to 52, the chairman made some ruling which do not went down well with members, thereby stalling the process “The point of inviting INEC and NCC, was for the house to be better informed to make a decision on the Clause”, he stated.
The members led by the Minority Leader, Ndudi Elumelu said they were disappointed with the action of the presiding officer for arresting the rules of the House and muzzling the voice of majority who voted in support of electronic transmission of results.
The lawmakers expressed regret on how the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has continued to intentionally suppress the will of the people, adding that there was never an agreement on the clause 52 ( 2 ) which was one of the major reasons thr House was forced.to suspend plenary to Friday.
In a presentation earlier, representative of the Nigeria
Communications Commission (NCC) told members that with NLC about 50 percent GSM coverage of Nigeria, electronic voting and transmission of results may not be feasible at the moment, even as he agreed that there may be paso biliary of hacking.
Speaker of the House, Femi Gbajabiamila in his closing remarks said it was not good to deny any eligible voter due to inability to access the suggested technology. “We must get our electoral process right, and we don’t want to disenfranchise anybody, because every vote must count.
In an interaction with journalists, Chairman of the House committee on Electoral Matters, Aisha Dukku described it as “a ticket to free, fair and credible election come 2023”, adding that “the procedure ofvo ting and transmission of results under the law shall be determined by the Commission (INEC)”.
