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How three Southern Senators aborted ET after Senate’s endorsement
A move by three Senators from the “South” was all it took on Thursday to scuttle a supposed agreement by the upper legislative chambers of the National Assembly from including real-time mandatory transmission of election results into the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV), a development that has now left the Nigerian polity restive.
Vanguard reports that Senators, like their counterparts in the House of Representatives, which had since passed the same provision in December 2025, were on the verge of toeing the same line when the three Senators made their move, which changed everything.
The development came on the heels of the proposal of the Electoral Act, 2022 (Repeal and Enactment) Bill, 2026 (SB. 903), specifically an amendment to Clause 60(3), which sought to compel presiding officers of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to upload polling unit results to the INEC Result Viewing Portal, IReV, in real time.
The recommendation, which also triggered wider reforms on election timelines, penalties for electoral offences and voting technology, was voted down by the 10th Senate under the leadership of Senate President, Senator Godswill Akpabio.
At the centre of the controversy is Section 60(3) of the bill, dealing with the transmission of polling unit results. The provision was recommended by the Senate Committee on Electoral Matters, chaired by Senator Simon Lalong (APC, Plateau South).
The paper, quoting a source, reported that during clause-by-clause consideration of the committee’s report, the Senate initially worked on a version that retained real-time electronic transmission.
However, after hours of deliberations and as plenary dragged late into the evening, the final version passed by the Senate was altered at the last minute to expunge the provision.
The same source, said to have acknowledged that both the Senate which had already upheld the new provision during a closed session, in tandem with the recommendation of an ad-hoc committee, chaired by Niyi Adegbonmire, APC (Ondo Central), which earlier endorsed it after more than one year of consultations.
The Adegbonmire committee was said to have engaged INEC, civil society organisations and stakeholders through joint sessions and zonal public hearings, where consensus was reportedly reached that electronic transmission must be explicitly legalised to avoid the legal controversies that trailed the 2023 general elections.
Page 45 of the report of the Senate Committee on Electoral Matters, Clause 60(3) provided: “The Presiding Officer shall electronically transmit the results from each polling unit to the 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.”
Still quoting the source, which stated that many Senators got to the clause, on assumption it would pass smoothly, given prior resolutions,” as saying: “That was when the unexpected happened. Three ranking Southern Senators allegedly intervened. The Senators approached the Senate President and urged him to retain the provision of the 2022 Electoral Act.”
Acting on this, Akpabio was said to have upheld the existing law, allowing electronic transmission only after votes were counted and publicly announced at polling units, and instead of “transmission,” the word “transfer” was adopted, in line with the 2022 Act, even though no fresh debate was conducted on the floor.
The rejected amendment, which would have mandated real-time upload of results to IReV immediately after completion of Form EC8A, read: “The Presiding Officer shall transfer the results, including the total number of accredited voters and the results of the ballot, in a manner as prescribed by the commission.”
The echoes of the drums rolled out to celebrate the rescue of the 44 teachers and students, kidnapped from some schools in Oyo State, after 56 days in the bush, would surely be disrupted abruptly, with the divergent echoes of a fresh abduction, this time coming from Kogi State.
Reports indicate that the gunmen, struck on Tuesday at the Government Secondary School, Odo-Ekina, in Dekina Local Government Area of the state, abducting four students, the school principal and a National Examinations Council (NECO) ad hoc staff member.
Authorities of the Kogi State Police Command, who immediately unleashed their operatives in hot pursuit of the abductors, said the attack occurred at about 5:25 p.m. while the students were writing their NECO examination.
Saliu Oyiza Afusat, an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) and spokesman of the command, said a combined team of police personnel and other security agencies has launched a search-and-rescue operation following the incident.
Informing that one of the students was actually rescued immediately, she said efforts were ongoing to secure the release of the remaining victims and apprehend the attackers, adding that Naziru Bello Kankarofi, the state Commissioner of Police, alongside the Brigade Commander and the State Security Adviser to the Governor, Commodore Jerry Omodara (Rtd), were already on the way to the scene for an on-the-spot assessment.
Oil prices are expected to go down now with the announcement of Donald Trump, US President that he will no longer impose a 20 percent “safe passage” fee on ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz.
The POTUS, hinged his reversal of the decision on the intervention from some Gulf countries, who pleaded with him not to toe the line due to the massive economic impact the decision would make on the region.
Indeed, oil prices had shot up immediately Trump announced the new levy on Monday while declaring the US ‘the guardians of the Hormuz strait,’ a measure which he said was to pay for the cost of guarding the volatile area in order keep supply of oil flowing.
Reports said that Gulf allies of the US worked frantically to get Trump on the phone in time to talk him out of the idea altogether, while a flurry of appeals came from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Qatar.
In response, the POTUS, posting on his Truth Social platform, wrote: “Based on highly productive conversations with Middle East leadership, I have decided to replace the 20% United States Reimbursement Fee with Trade and Investment Deals that the various Gulf States will be making into the United States.”
Trump, who said the investments would be “MASSIVE but, at the same time, extraordinarily good for them, and their future,” added that the deals would see factories, plants, and equipment pour into the US at “Historic levels.”
The Gulf nations have committed to invest trillions of dollars in the US, though it remains unclear how much of that they will actually spend over the next several years.
Meanwhile, the US continues to bomb Iran in what appears to be a resumption of active conflict between both countries, despite an ongoing roadmap to end the conflict.
Reports say operatives of the Osun State Police Command, and those of the Department of State Services (DSS) had tracking the trail of Adeniyi Adeyemi, controversial Director General of the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC), for weeks, before he was eventually pulled out of his hole on Tuesday.
However, the duo, were said to have pulled back after failing to track him through his mobile phones, which he had reportedly switched off for about two days, making it difficult to locate him, leaving the stage for the members of the Police Intelligence Response Team (PI-RT) led by Moses Lohor, a Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP).
Lohor, said to have previously served as the Commander of the Anti-Kidnapping Squad of Osun State, and reported to have been involved in high-profile security operations and controversies, after taken over fielded his men to pick up signals from their well-oiled signal networks.
Regarded by many Osun residents as one of the key security officers who contributed significantly to the peace and stability enjoyed in Ilesa and other parts of the state during his tenure, he was said to have relied on his contacts before his transfer out of the state, said to have raised concerns from the public about the security situation he would be leaving behind.
His exit from the state was said to be hinged on an incident in 2024, in which he allegedly shot one Iyanda Alowonle, then Chairman of Osun State Motor Transport System, in the stomach at the police station in the state prompting an order for his arrest by then Inspector General of Police (IGP).
His effort was said to have paid off when he successfully tracked down the controversial PFIPC, boss, who was seen on Tuesday evening, in a shot video on social media undergoing interrogation, and eventually handed him over to Ibrahim Gotan, Commissioner of Police in the state.
The PUNCH quoted one of the sources as saying: “The arrest (of Adeyemi) took place on Tuesday morning by the IRT squad, who immediately moved him to Abuja. After he was arrested, he was taken to Ibadan and from there to Abuja.”
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