The governors elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have vehemently condemned the rejection of e-transmission of election results by the House of Representatives.
It would be recalled that the Senate had given conditional approval for the electronic transmission of poll results. But the House Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, during a plenary on Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill said the proposed electronic transmission of election results was not yet feasible in the country.
However, Aminu Tambuwal, PDP governor of Sokoto state, who spoke on behalf of his colleagues on Monday July 26, said there is a great need for free, fair and credible elections in the country
Rising from their meeting in Bauchi, the governors insisted that the National Assembly must enact laws to make electronic transmission of election results possible. According to Tambuwal, the governors identified the need for free, fair and credible elections in Nigeria.
In a ten-point-communique at the end of its meeting, the Chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum,
Tambuwal called on the National Assembly to entrench Electronic transmission of election results in the nation’s electoral jurisprudence.
He said:
“On the Electoral Act Amendment Bill, the Governors identified the need for free, fair and credible elections in the country and called on the National Assembly to entrench Electronic transmission of results of elections in the nation’s electoral jurisprudence.”
The governors also requested the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to deploy appropriate technologies necessary to ensure that votes of all Nigerians count.
Meanwhile, NCC says it can’t guarantee 100% safety of e-transmission of results. It has been previously reported, barely 24 hours after the resolution of the Senate, that the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) said it could not guarantee total safety for the electronic transmission of results.
An executive commissioner of the NCC, Adeleke Adewolu, told lawmakers at the House of Representatives on Friday, July 16, that while concerns over the electronic transmission of results are genuine, no system can guarantee a 100% shield from hacking.