Kenneth Okonkwo, ADC (African Democratic Congress) member, has criticised the Senate over recent amendments to the Electoral Act, accusing lawmakers of weakening Nigeria’s democratic process.
In a statement titled “Nigerians are duped by the Senate” shared on X on Tuesday, Okonkwo condemned the amendment to Section 60 of the Electoral Act, which allows the electronic transmission of election results but permits manual collation where electronic transmission is deemed impossible.
Okonkwo specifically took issue with a proposal by Senator Mohammed Monguno, which states that manually generated Form EC8A may be used for result collation if electronic transmission cannot be carried out. He argued that this proviso effectively nullifies the mandate for electronic transmission, legitimising technical glitches and undermining electoral integrity.
“Senator Monguno has just proposed a worse amendment to the controversial clause that rejected mandatory electronic transmission of results. He proposed a proviso that manually generated Form EC8A should be used only where electronic transmission is impossible. This is going back to square one… approving technical glitches in our elections,” Okonkwo said.
He pointed out that a similar justification had been used by INEC during the 2023 presidential election when electronic transmission reportedly failed. Okonkwo stressed that Nigerians demand mandatory electronic transmission, and any failure to transmit from polling units should render the election void and rescheduled, mirroring how BVAS accreditation failures are handled under Section 47(2)(3) of the Electoral Act, 2022.
“It is obvious that Nigerians must insist on mandatory electronic transmission of results without an option for unverified manual collation, or the integrity of our elections will be destroyed. This Senate is hell-bent on destroying our democracy and Nigerians must resist this,” he added.
The Senate, during an emergency plenary session on Tuesday, amended Section 60. Senate President Godswill Akpabio explained that presiding officers at polling units are now required to electronically transmit results to INEC’s Results Viewing Portal (IREV) after Form EC8A has been signed and stamped.
“The presiding officer shall electronically transmit the results from each polling unit to the IREV portal after Form EC8A has been signed and stamped by the presiding officer, and/or countersigned by the candidates or polling agents where available at the polling units,” Akpabio stated.
Elijah Adeyemi
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