From Fred Itua, Abuja
Bloggers have called on President Muhammadu Buhari to assent to the recently-passed Electoral Amendment Bill by the two chambers of the National Assembly
President of Bloggers of Nigeria (BON), Ikechukwu Chukwunyere, who spoke on behalf of others, said the assent will element electoral fraud during elections.
He said though there are imperfections with the Bill, it will, however, sanitise the electoral processes in Nigeria.
He said: “The media space was recently saturated with the news of the harmonised version of The Electoral Act Amendment Bill 2021. This was passed by the lawmakers during the Tuesday’s plenary, it was agreed to be the final version between the Senate and House of Representatives on the amendment to Clause 84 of the bill.
“The re-amendment was sequel to a motion on “rescission on clause 84 of the Electoral Act No. 26 2010 (Amendment) Bill, 2022 and Committal to the Committee of the Whole” sponsored by the Senate Leader, Yahaya Abdullahi.
“We therefore, commend the National Assembly for doing a further job on this well intended bill particularly as related to section 84 of the Act.
“We welcome the idea of the harmonized version of the the electoral bill because It accommodates the direct, indirect, and consensus primary modes of nominating candidates by political parties for elections.
“Irrespective of some imperfections in the bill, We commend the leadership of the Nigeria Senate for the re-amendment which was done to harmonise the lawmakers’ position with that of the House of Representatives.
“It is commendable because this position is in line with our expectations and that of Nigerians.
“We strongly believe that if the Electoral Act Amendment Bill 2021 is passed by the National Assembly which empowers the INEC to transmit election results electronically, it will greatly eliminate electoral frauds among other irregularities.
“For that reason, we believe that the onus is now on President Muhammadu Buhari to, as urgently as possible, sign the amended electoral bill into law, so that there will be no encumbrance of any sort for INEC to go ahead and conduct transparent, credible and fair elections across the country.
“We call on President Buhari to quickly assent to the bill, bearing in mind that time is of essence as the 2023 elections draw closer.
“We are hopeful that the bill will be signed into law when transmitted by the National Assembly to the President for assent.
“Furthermore, We also use this opportunity to inform the public that THE BLOGGERS OF NIGERIA the umbrella body of all bloggers in Nigeria will be having an emergency National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting on the 6th of February 2022 in Abuja to discuss the state of the nation.”