By George Mgbeleke <\/p>\n
The Senate at its emergency plenary on Tuesday was thrown into confusion as lawmakers reconvened to revisit their earlier decision on the electronic transmission of election results contained in the Electoral Act Amendment Bill, 2026.<\/p>\n
Proceedings turned rowdy shortly after the Senate Chief Whip, Senator Tahir Monguno (APC, Borno North), raised a point of order seeking the rescission of the chamber\u2019s earlier approval of Clause 60(3) of the bill.<\/p>\n
Monguno anchored his request on Orders 1(b) and 52(6) of the Senate Standing Orders, 2023 (as amended), and was seconded by Senator Abdul Ningi (PDP, Bauchi Central).<\/p>\n
However, the move immediately sparked tension in the chamber, with several senators raising points of order in protest.<\/p>\n
Trouble escalated when Monguno moved his motion and read Clause 60(3) without the phrase \u201creal-time,\u201d replacing the word \u201ctransmission\u201d with \u201ctransfer.\u201d<\/p>\n
To save the situation from generating controversy the senate President decided to guide the senate on Senator Monguno’s motion saying,”let me guide the Senate. What I understood from the last sitting was that the distinguished senator proposed the use of the word \u201ctransfer\u201d instead of \u201ctransmit.\u201d
\nHe later approached me to clarify this change and indicated his intention to bring a substantive motion to correct the wording. <\/p>\n
However, it appears that even the Clerk did not fully reflect this in the Votes and Proceedings.
\nMr. President, the distinguished senator is now formally bringing the amendment. Please proceed.<\/p>\n
Proposed Amendment (Read into the Record):
\n“That the presiding officer shall electronically transmit the results from each polling unit to the IReV portal, and such transmission shall be done after the prescribed Form EC8A has been signed and stamped by the presiding officer and, where available, countersigned by candidates or polling agents at the polling unit.<\/p>\n
Provided that where electronic transmission of results fails as a result of communication failure or any other reason that makes it impossible to transmit the results electronically, the Form EC8A, duly signed and stamped by the presiding officer and countersigned by candidates or polling agents where available, shall in such a case be the primary source for collation and declaration of results.” Akpabio noted.<\/p>\n
Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe (APGA, Abia South) objected strongly, repeatedly raising points of order as the chamber descended into shouting.<\/p>\n
According to page 45 of the report of the Senate Committee on Electoral Matters, Clause 60(3) of the bill states: \u201cThe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile,the Red Chamber in lifting page 45 of the committee’s report was silent on the Clause” In Real Time “which was one of the contentious issues raised by opposition parties and Civil society organisations in protests.<\/p>\n
At the height of the disagreement, Abaribe invoked Order 72 of the Standing Orders, calling for a division.<\/p>\n
The President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio, then asked Abaribe whether he was proceeding with his request for a vote.<\/p>\n
Abaribe appeared momentarily confused before announcing that he had withdrawn his point of order calling for division.<\/p>\n
Tuesday\u2019s extraordinary sitting came less than one week after the Senate passed the Electoral Act Amendment Bill, 2026, amid growing pressure from civil society organisations, opposition leaders, labour unions, professional bodies, regional leaders and youth groups.<\/p>\n
The public backlash has also spilled beyond statements, with protesters taking their grievances to the gates of the National Assembly to demand the retention of real-time electronic transmission of election results.<\/p>\n
Akpabio presided over the session, which was attended by 105 senators.<\/p>\n
The developments reduced the total number of senators from 109 to 106.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By George Mgbeleke The Senate at its emergency plenary on Tuesday was thrown into confusion as lawmakers reconvened to revisit their earlier decision on the electronic transmission of election results contained in the Electoral Act Amendment Bill, 2026. Proceedings turned rowdy shortly after the Senate Chief Whip, Senator Tahir Monguno (APC, Borno North), raised a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8992,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[418,6093,5678],"class_list":["post-10982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-controversy","tag-generating","tag-situation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10982"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10982\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10983,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10982\/revisions\/10983"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}