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BREAKING: Senate balks, finally endorses real-time result transmission
The Senate on Tuesday, finally amended the Electoral Act to permit the electronic transmission of election results, leaving safeguards to address potential technical challenges, ending a two-day protest by Nigerians across board.
The decision follows the upper chamber’s move on Tuesday to rescind its earlier position, which had rejected the compulsory electronic transmission of results from polling units to the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) Result Viewing Portal (IREV).
Following the new amendment, the Senate approved electronic transmission (without the real time phrase) as part of the electoral process but stipulated that where internet connectivity fails, the Form EC8A will remain the primary instrument for result collation.
Under the proposal, electronic transmission would serve as the primary method of uploading results.
However, in the event of technical challenges such as network failures, the motion provides for a fallback option allowing the manual transmission of results using Form EC8A, duly signed and stamped by the presiding officer.
The proposal, however, sparked concerns among lawmakers, particularly over the reliance on Form EC8A as the primary source of election results, where disputes arise.
The differing views led to sharp divisions on the floor of the Senate, prompting Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe to call for an individual vote on the matter to clearly determine the position of each lawmaker.
However, rather surprisingly, Senator Abaribe withdrew his call for individual votes moments later.
12-member committee
Meanwhile, the upper chamber has appointed a 12-member conference committee to harmonise differences between its version of the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill and that of the House of Representatives.
Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, announced the decision during an emergency plenary session on Tuesday.
“After consultation with the leadership, we have moved the number from nine to 12. I will now read out the names of the conference committee members from the Senate,” Akpabio said on the floor of the Senate.
The members are:
- Senator Simon Bako Lalong – Chairman
- Senator Mohammed Tahir Monguno – Member
- Senator Adamu Aliero – Member
- Senator Orji Uzor Kalu – Member
- Senator Abba Moro – Member
- Senator Asuquo Ekpenyong – Member
- Senator Aminu Iya Abbas – Member
- Senator Tokunbo Abiru – Member
- Senator Niyi Adegbonmire (SAN) – Member
- Senator Jibrin Isah – Member
- Senator Ipalibo Banigo – Member
- Senator Onyekachi Nwebonyi – Member
‘Tinubu to sign bill February’
He urged the committee to treat its assignment as urgent, expressing optimism that the process could be concluded swiftly.
The Senate President said that the outcome would be transmitted promptly to President Bola Tinubu for assent within February.
He expressed optimism that President Bola Tinubu, in the next one week, would sign the bill into law as an act of Parliament.
Rowdy session
Proceedings at Tuesday’s Senate sitting became tense, as repeated interruptions and heated exchanges disrupted debates in the Red Chamber.
The atmosphere shifted after lawmakers began deliberation on a motion sponsored by Senator Tahir Monguno, which triggered sharp divisions among members.
Monguno proposed that the Senate rescind its earlier approval of Clause 60(3) of the Electoral Act (Repeal and Enactment) Bill, 2026—a provision that outlines the process for transmitting election results electronically.
The debate culminated in Senate President Godswill Akpabio lending his support to a revised framework that designates electronic transmission as the primary mode of uploading results, while allowing manual submission via Form EC8A strictly where technical challenges occur.
Controversial clause
The Senate’s emergency plenary session followed mounting public outrage over recent changes to the Electoral Act, with particular attention on provisions governing the electronic transmission of election results.
At the heart of the dispute is Clause 60(3), which the Senate amended last week by removing the requirement for real-time electronic transmission. Instead, lawmakers retained the 2022 Electoral Act provision granting the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) the discretion to determine how election results are transmitted.
The decision sparked nationwide protests, including the Occupy National Assembly demonstration in Abuja. Civil society groups, opposition parties, and high-profile political figures such as Peter Obi and Rotimi Amaechi joined the calls for mandatory real-time electronic transmission, arguing that it is essential to improving the transparency and credibility of elections.
Adapted from Channels Television
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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