House passes Electoral act amidst protest

• PDP members stage walkout over clause 52

By Christiana Ekpa

The House of Representatives on Friday passed the controversial Electoral Act Amendment Bill amidst protest by members of the Minority caucus of the House, ceding the power to decide the mode of transmitting election result to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The House had stopped consideration of the report of the House Committee on Electoral Matters on Thursday following disagreement among members which almost led to a free for all fight inside the chamber.

Members who were agitating for electronic transmission of result were disappointed that the Chairman of the Committee of the Whole and Deputy Speaker, Idris Wase ruled against those who wanted electronic transmission of result following a motion for an amendment moved by Deputy Minority Leader, Rep. Toby Okechukwu.

The Speaker, Rep. Femi Gbajabiamila had announced that the Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigeria Communication Commission and the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) would be invited to brief the House on the implication of allowing electronic transmission of election results.

However, when the House resumed plenary on Friday to continue with the consideration, the Speaker announced that only officials of the NCC are present to address the members and that INEC were left out since they are the umpires and would not want to take side in the process.

Gbajabimaila who told members that consideration of the report will begin from the controversial clause 52 appealed to allow consideration of other clauses in the report first before coming back to the clause 52 since it was the only contentious clause in the bill.

Following the Speaker’s appeal, members became calm while allowing the process to proceed smoothly.

However, after the consideration, Minority Leader rose to address the House, drawing the attention of the presiding officer to the fact that consideration of the report was stalled at clause 52 on Thursday, adding that it would be out of place to ask for a removal of an earlier decision on clause 52, since no decision had been made.

He said “what happened yesterday was that the Deputy Minority Leader moved an amendment to clause 52 (2) which was rejected before the Speaker’s intervention. We were still on that amendment which we could not agree on. So, asking for rescission of clause 52 before we can move forward is out of place”.

At that stage, Elumelu began to walk out of the chamber, followed by his deputy and some other members of the PDP and Minority caucus while some others remained behind in the chamber to conclude the consideration.

Immediately they left the chambers, the Deputy Speaker put the question for vote on clause 52, while members responded with an overwhelming support that transmission of result be done manually instead of electronically.