President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, has said the Senate did not reject the electronic transmission of election results but merely retained the existing provision of the Electoral Act 2022.
Akpabio made the clarification on Saturday in Abuja while speaking at a book launch on the challenges facing legislators in Nigeria.
He explained that while electronic transmission of results remains allowed, lawmakers agreed to remove the phrase “real time” from the provision.
According to him, the decision was taken to avoid potential legal disputes arising from technical or network failures.
“If you say ‘real time’ and there is a network or grid failure, someone can go to court and argue that it ought to have been real time,” Akpabio said.
He added that the move was intended to give the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, the flexibility to determine the most appropriate method of transmitting results, taking into account technological and security considerations.
The Senate President also said the upper chamber would continue to pass laws that reflect the wishes of Nigerians.
RN
