The President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, has clarified that the Senate did not reject the electronic transmission of election results but merely retained the provision as contained in the 2022 Electoral Act.
Akpabio made the clarification on Saturday in Abuja while speaking at a book launch on the burden of legislators in Nigeria.
He explained that electronic transmission of results remains permissible, but the phrase “real time” was removed from the provision.
Akpabio said, “All we said during discussion was that we should remove the word ‘real-time’ because if you say real-time, then there is a network or grid failure and the network is not working. When you go to court, somebody will say it ought to have been real-time. That was all we said.
He emphasised that the decision was taken to grant the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) the flexibility to determine the appropriate mode of result transmission, taking into account technological and security challenges.
The Senate President stressed that the upper chamber would continue to enact legislation that reflects the wishes of the Nigerian people.