Nathaniel Zacchaeus, Abuja
The Senate was thrown into a rowdy session yesterday during the debate on a motion on the collation of the results of the Presidential and National Assembly 2023 election by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
The development came just as the President of the Senate declared that there was no provision for electronic transmission of election results in the Electoral Act 2022 passed by the Ninth National Assembly under his leadership
The Senator representing Kwara Central, Ibrahim Oloriegbe, had cited Orders 41 and 51 to present a motion on the need to call for calm and appeal to political parties, stakeholders, and Nigerians to abide by the rule of law on the electoral process in the just concluded election.
His colleagues in the All Progressive Congress supported him overwhelmingly.
He explained that it was very important for the highest legislative body to bring calm to the raging storm among political parties.
Oloriegbe urged all political actors, leaders, and every Nigerian to remain calm and allow the collation and announcement of the presidential and National Assembly elections to proceed based on the provisions of the electoral act.
In his contribution, Senator Sani Musa (APC, Niger East,) said since Nigerians did not vote electronically, the issue of asking INEC to release results in real-time was unnecessary because the Electoral Act didn’t mandate the electoral umpire to do so.
Musa said, “It is very clear that accreditation and verification are to be done by the BVAS.
“We are not voting electronically for that real-time transmission to happen. Transmission can only happen after it has been published on BVAS. So it is not real-time. We are not a court to interpret but INEC has a responsibility to stick to guidelines.
“It is a simple process and that process after publishing, they send it to back-end servers and it is after then that INEC can put it on IREV. INEC has been attacked over 160 times and nobody has been making any issue about that.”
The Senator representing Ekiti Central senatorial District, Opeyemi Bamidele (APC), told the electoral umpire to do the right thing based on the Electoral Act.
He said Nigerians should be patient for INEC to complete the process while also calling on the judiciary to do the right thing.
He added that the Judiciary should not allow itself to be dragged into interfering with the elections.
The rowdy session was witnessed when Senator Betty Apiafi (PDP, Rivers West), said it was wrong to bring up the issues at such a “critical time.”
She explained that it wasn’t in the place of the Senate to prescribe what the guidelines should be.
The Senator representing Benue North West, Emmanuel Orker-Jev (PDP), supported his colleague stating that it was best for the Red Chamber to maintain neutrality on the issue.
He said, “The best way is to step down this Order because if we are already generating this kind of controversy, imagine what will happen out there.”
Senator Adamu Bulkachuwa (PDP, Bauchi North), also noted that the Senate should steer clear of the issues due to the controversy surrounding it.
He said, “Whatever happens in the collation centre and the social media, the Senate should not be involved in it. We passed the Electoral Act and for goodness sake, if we don’t stop this motion down, there will be endless controversy on party lines and God knows what it will generate in the public domain.”
Also, the Minority Whip, Senator Chukwuka Utazi, (PDP, Enugu North), said, “I think we have exhaustively looked at issues concerned here. As a parliament, we must stabilize the polity to calm the nerves of people that are agitated as a result of the last election on 25th February.
“We are here to appeal to our people to follow the law and we are asking all the agencies of government to follow what the law stipulates.”
Also, the Anambra Central senator, Uche Ekwenife added that “This is a very controversial matter; everywhere is tense, and people are very apprehensive. The only way out of it is for INEC to stick to the Constitution and the Electoral Act. INEC should stick to their guideline. That is the only solution.”
The Ekiti South Senator, Biodun Olujimi said, “This process is still ongoing and INEC should follow its guidelines and the Electoral Law.
“We should not ignite violence and the best way is to ask everybody to maintain peace and order while we go through this process and finish it properly.”
*Lawan: No electronic results transmission in Electoral Act
Ruling on the motion, the Senate President said there was no provision for the electronic transmission of results in the Electoral Act.
He said the National Assembly only made provision for the transfer of results from the polling units to the server of the Independent National Electoral Commission.
Lawan said, “In the Electoral Act that we passed, there is nothing like the electoral transmission. What we have passed is to transfer after all the paper works that we normally do while the agents and everybody there have the papers.
“INEC will now scan or snap the result sheets and transfer them. We urge INEC to follow the Electoral Act and other laws on their guidelines.
“In this Chamber, we are not going to interpret the Electoral Act. This is not a Court of Law. We are just to guide this debate and talk about the general principles of how this election and declaration should be done. There is no need to stress ourselves. What we are doing is to urge INEC to follow the law and the citizens should be calm.”
Lawan said the right thing to do is that anyone who was not satisfied with the verdict of INEC should go to court.
