Gbajabiamila: We didn’t reject electronic transfer of poll results

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, has dismissed media reports that the lawmakers have removed electronic transfer of election result from the Electoral Act amendment bill.

The Speaker who said he had made it a habit not to respond to every media report said the committee saddled with the responsibility of working on the Electoral Act was yet to submit a report to the House.

The Speaker’s statement was sequel to an observation by a member who said his constituents had been calling him to demand why the lawmakers would refuse electronic transfer of election results.

The Speaker said the House would follow its normal procedure in considering clause by clause of the b0ill when the committee submits its report saying, “I have asked the chairman of the committee and she told me that she was not aware of that.”

Also at the Senate, there has been a heated debate over reported smuggling of strange Section 50(2) into the Electoral Act Amendment, which will completely prevent transmission of votes by electronic means. Some members of the Kabiru Gaya-led Senate Committee on INEC described this as strange.

The President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, has said the National Assembly is working towards passing the Electoral Act Amendment Bill in the next two weeks.