ABUJA — The House of Representatives has passed the Electoral Amendment Bill as opposition lawmakers walked out of the heated session at the National Assembly in Abuja on Friday.
The Green Chamber of the National Assembly passed the bill after a clause-by-clause consideration.
The lower chamber passed the majority of the 158 clauses of the bill intact including Clause 52 (2), which led to the heated session.
The clause stated that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) shall determine the mode of voting/transmission of election results.
Clause 52 (2) read, “Voting at election and transmission of results in this Bill shall be in accordance with the procedure determined by the Commission.”
Attempts by some lawmakers to amend the clause led to the cause of the heated controversy and rowdiness during the plenary on Thursday.
The situation had no different on Friday as the debate over the clause resulted in opposition lawmakers, majorly from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), walked out of the session as they insisted that the clause was never carried.
They also threatened to disrupt the proceedings when the House resumed from break.
Also on Thursday, the House failed to reach a consensus over the much-debated clause after the Deputy Speaker, Idris Wale ruled against the electronic transmission of election results despite a resounding vote that favored the move.
Also, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, said INEC and the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) would be present on Friday to give further clarifications on the Electoral Act with a major focus on Section 52(2).
On Friday, the NCC honored the invitation of the House and explained that it cannot guarantee a 100% safety of results for the electronic transmission of results, adding that no system is completely free from hackers.
The Executive Commissioner (Stakeholder Management) of the Commission, Adeleke Adewole, admitted that no system can guarantee a 100 percent shield from hacking.
The NCC Chief also stated that elections results can only be transmitted by a 3% Network, noting that 50 percent of the country has 3G coverage.
Already, the Senate had voted for the conditional electronic transmission of election results.
At the end of voting, 28 Senators mostly from the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) voted for the original amendment in the report while 52 Senators backed the amendment as proposed by Senator Sabi Abdullahi.
This means the majority of Senators voted that INEC may consider electronic transmission provided the national network coverage is adjudged to be adequate and secure by NCC and approved by the National Assembly.
