YIAGA Africa Executive Director Samson Itodo has accused the Senate of betraying the Nigerian people and undermining years of democratic progress.
Speaking on Arise TV, Itodo described the Senate’s decision to reject mandatory real-time electronic result transmission as a “dangerous retreat” from transparency.
The backlash follows the Senate’s Wednesday vote against amending Clause 60(3) of the Electoral Act, which would have mandated the immediate digital upload of polling unit results.
Persecondnews reports that however, the situation took a confusing turn just three hours later when Senate President Godswill Akpabio issued a clarification.
Akpabio insisted the chamber had not rejected electronic transmission entirely, despite the vote against making it a compulsory requirement.
Reacting, Itodo said: “The Senate has betrayed the trust of Nigerians and made rubbish of all the gains we have made. This is a dangerous retreat from some of the lofty reforms that were introduced by the 2022 Electoral Act.
“I completely disagree with the Senate President. He is just being clever by half because what he is saying is that the ruling of the Supreme Court in the 2023 elections, they were very clear that electronic coalition or transmission was unknown to the law that INEC cannot, by virtue of its guidelines, introduce electronic transmission.
“And so what the National Assembly did, particularly the two committees in the National Assembly was to take that judicial pronouncement and update the law, because when the extant law says it shall be by a procedure determined by INEC.
“INEC went ahead in its guideline, determined the procedure, but the court now said, no, you have to insert it in the law and the report before them, because I was part of the technical committee that was part of this entire process.
“What the House passed was that electronic transmission will be part of this process. In fact, the report also mentioned the iREV.
“So I think that the Senate President is lying to Nigerians, because that’s not what was provided in the report. It was clear electronic transmission of result.
“But that’s not also the only thing. One of the things that the Senate has also done is introduce some draconian provisions that will undermine the preparations for the 2027 elections, especially logistics. What they have done, they have compressed the time frame.
“If this is the outcome of a thorough job, then I think that the Senate owes Nigerians a lot of apologies.”
Leave a comment