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Electoral Act amendment: Reps under pressure to abandon compulsory e-transmission of results

*R eal-time electronic transmission of election results not practicable now — Senate TENSION is rising in the nation’s legislative arena as the two chambers of the National Assembly meet today to take a common position on the method of election result transmission from polling centres to the Independent National Electoral Commission’s result portal. The 24-member committee, made up of 12 each from the Senate and House of Representatives, converge on NASS today to finalise their position on the controversial issue, which almost threw the chambers into chaos last week until the senators summoned an emergency meeting to assuage Nigerians with a slightly different position from what they had earlier adopted. But ahead of the meeting, intense lobbying as to which version of the proposed amendment should be adopted, has begun in earnest, spiking the potential of the lawmakers taking a position dictated by the All Progressives Congress, APC, which controls both chambers of NASS. There was ind...
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Makoko demolitions: Fate of 1,000 schoolchildren hangs

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Recent demolition exercises in some parts of Lagos State, especially Makoko, have not only led to thousands of people being rendered homeless, but many students having no where to continue their education, at least for the time being. According to figures from community leaders and school owners in the community, no fewer than1,000 children have been driven out of their schools, which are mostly private-owned. The area is one of those underserved in terms of education facilities. A school owner, who preferred anonymity, captured the situation thus: “The demolition exercises in Makoko,  Ekun-Agbo and Shogunro communities have forced over 1,000 children to stop school. As I am speaking with you, only 50 out of over 500 in my school resumed. This is because many have relocated, many are homeless now, with many abandoning school due to the trauma of the demolitions.” The tension of the demolition of homes and properties in the Makoko waterfront community and its environs may be going d...
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Electoral Act: Rowdy session as Senate okays conditional e-transmission of results

*Where electronic upload fails, result sheet to be used for collation, declaration  *12-member conference c’ttee to harmonise bill with Reps, submit report Feb 17 *Abaribe moves, withdraws motion  for division, vote *Amaechi leads son to Occupy NASS protest ground *Electoral Act alteration threatens Nigeria’s democracy, ACF warns *Public pressure forced Senate reversal on e-transmission of results —ADC Proceedings in the Senate turned rowdy yesterday as lawmakers rescinded and re-amended provisions of the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill, 2026, to accommodate electronic transmission of election results, but without making real-time upload mandatory. The tension followed the Senate’s decision to revisit Clause 60(3) of the bill, barely days after it had rejected a proposal seeking to compel real-time electronic transmission of results from polling units to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC,’s Result Viewing Portal, IReV. After hours of heated debate, the Senate ...
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Electoral Act: Senate rejects mandatory electronic transmission of results

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*Reduces election notice from 360 to 180 days *LP, PDP, George, Okorie slam Senate over results transmission *We retained old law, didn’t reject electronic transmission – Akpabio  *INEC vows to sanitise voters register, says dead men don’t vot  *Declares readiness for Feb 21 Abuja council, Rivers, Kano bye-elections *Senate blocking real-time results to protect incumbents — Atiku AFTER pressure from the media and other stakeholders, the Senate,has passed the Electoral Act Amendment Bill but rejected electronic transmission of results, an item that some stakeholders consider critical for free and fair elections in 2027. The Senate passed the Electoral Act 2022 (Repeal and Re-enactment) Amendment Bill 2026 after the third reading. It rejected a proposed amendment to Clause 60, Subsection 3, of the bill, which sought to make the electronic transmission of election results mandatory. But Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, said in a swift reaction that the Senate retained transmis...
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Gale of defections: Why should anyone vote in Nigerian elections?

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By Olu Fasan BY the end of this year, or even earlier, the All Progressives Congress, APC, Nigeria’s ruling party, may control 30 or more of Nigeria’s 36 state governors. Currently, the party has 29 state governors in its fold. Of these 29, only 21 are APC governors by election, the others are APC governors by defection. The gale of defections has swept away eight of the 12 governors of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and deprived the All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP, of its only governor. The president, Bola Tinubu, is fully hands-on in his determination to lure and co-opt virtually all opposition governors into his party ahead of his re-election bid in 2027.  But does anyone, not least the president himself, care about the irreparable damage that the whirlwind of defections is inflicting on Nigeria’s party system and its electoral or representative democracy? Any representative democracy derives its legitimacy from the explicit consent of the governed, and, thus...
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FG, Northern leaders, attorneys disagree on terrorist amnesty

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*Govs have powers to grant such amnesty, if... — AGF  *They can't grant amnesty offences under federal laws — Lawyers  lACF, CNG, CAN, MBF, Muslim clerics, others disagree, *Say amnesty'll compound insecurity in region NORTHERN  leaders have disagreed with the federal and state governments over amnesty being granted terrorists who have turned the region into a killing field. The leaders' angst is coming against the backdrop of plans by Katsina State governor, Dikko Radda, to grant amnesty to 70 terrorists, as part of an agreement reached between the state government and terrorists terrorising the state and other parts of the north. The anger of the northern leaders was accentuated by the position of Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation, AGF, on the matter, as Special Adviser to the President (Communications and Publicity) in the AGF's office, Mr. Kamarudeen Ogundele, yesterday gave vent to governors' powers to grant such pardon. ''Governors have ...
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