Gbajabiamila sets up conference committee on electoral bill

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila on Tuesday set up a 7-member Conference Committee that will interface with the Senate on the Electoral bill, 2021, with a view to harmonizing contentious clauses.

The Conference Committee is to be chaired by Hon. Akeem Adeyemi (APC-Oyo), and other members are drawn from the six geopolitical zones of the federation.

Other members of the Conference Committee are the chairman, House Committee on Finance, Hon. James Faleke; Hon. Chris Azubogu (PDP-Anambra), Hon. Blessing Onuh (APC-Benue), Hon. Aisha Dukku (APC-Gombe), Hon. Unyime Idem (PDP-Akwa Ibom) and Hon. Ahmad Kalambaina (APC-Sokoto).

While the Senate empowered the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) to determine the use of electronic transmission of election results, the House gave the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) the discretion to decide ‘where applicable’ to use manual or e-transmission of election results.

Recall that members of the opposition parties led by the Minority leader, Hon. Ndudi Elumelu had on Friday, 16th July, 2021 staged a walk-out from the Chambers, few minutes after the Deputy Speaker, Hon. Ahmed Wase shunned all entreaties to revisit the controversial provision on electronic transmission of election results which led to the protracted protest during the Thursday plenary, and his insistence that the Section has been carried by the House at the Committee of the Whole.

The lawmakers who spoke during a press briefing faulted the presentation made by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) through the Executive Commissioner for Technical Services, Engr. Ubale Pascal, who disclosed that only 50.3% of the network coverage in 2018 was ahead of the 2019 general elections.

On his part, Hon. Mark Gbillah and Hon. Stanley Olajide argued that the electronic transmission of election results does not require internet service and can be done successfully by 2G and 3G in any part of the country.

Hon. Gbillah said: “As a professional in the industry, first and foremost when you talk about 3G and 2G and LTE which he mentioned, these are technologies that have to do with internet or broadband. Now transmission of election results does not have to be by broadband and I am surprised that someone who supposes to be professional in the NCC does not know the difference.

“This USSD we use just uses GSM network, that is all that we need, like the SMS message that is all that we required to transmit the results. We don’t need internet services. And we have more than 90% coverage of that,” he argued.

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