TheCable

The minority caucus in the house of representatives has described the process of the passage of the electoral bill as “fake”.

TheCable had reported how the electoral bill was passed by the lower chamber on Friday — after the PDP caucus staged a walkout.

Speaking to journalists after he led the caucus to boycott the passing of the bill on Friday, Ndudi Elumelu, minority leader of the house, said his colleagues cannot be part of a “fake process” that denies Nigerians the opportunity for their electoral results to be “counted accurately”.

“Nigerians sent us here for a purpose. We are here for a purpose and the purpose is to represent their interest. The Nigerian people voted us to represent their interest,” he said.

“In this electoral act, we started very well. When it got to clause 52 (2), which talks about electronic transmission of results and we could not agree as to the mood of accepting whether to go for electronic transmission or not, in that process, the deputy minority leader moved for an amendment.

“In his amendment, he posited that the amendment should read that the next election should be by electronic transmission of results, and eventually, the chairman seating (deputy speaker) refused to listen to the amendment.

“The speaker tried to intervene and when we could not reach an agreement, we had to adjourn and the decision was reached by the house that we should invite INEC and NCC to talk about the their ability to ensure that our results are transmitted electronically all over the country.

“But to our greatest surprise, upon resumption this morning, we found out that INEC was asked to stay back. We tried to inquire why — they told us that it’s because they do no want INEC to be seen to be biased and that was why they deprived INEC from coming.

“The NCC itself, they asked the executive vice-chairman not to show up and thereby he resorted to asking somebody in the capacity of a director to show up.

“Even the director himself couldn’t even substantiate issues. The man, while he was making his submission, couldn’t be heard and I asked him, ‘you are under oath, is it that why you could not be heard or are you always like this or is it stage fright?’ But I was shouted down.

“We went to the speaker and suggested that we step down that clause 52, we do other clauses, after which we will come back. Having done that, he was now trying to add that they moved a motion for us to go back to plenary and report progress, and that resulted in us through me standing up to ask the chairman, ‘is it that we are not going back to that clause 52, because in our opinion, that clause 52(2) has not been taken, let alone asking us to apply the rules of the house?’

“If you do that, it means you’re saying that ab initio, it has been carried, and we said ‘no, ab initio, it has not been carried’, which was why we suspended the further consideration of the bill till today.

“But he refused and said it has been carried, and we have no other choice than to say that we cannot be part of that fake process where they’re depriving Nigerians of their right for their results to be counted accurately, because e-transmission will guard against rigging and votes can count. But what they’ve done is to discountenance our agitations that let there be transparency in the next conduct of our elections.”

Elumelu added that the minority caucus will continue its protest when the house resumes in September after its annual recess.