Senate President says lawmakers merely retained the 2022 Electoral Act provision, insists electronic transmission remains part of Nigerian law

Senate President Godswill Akpabio has firmly dismissed reports and social media narratives claiming that the Nigerian Senate voted against the electronic transmission of election results while considering the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill, 2026.

Akpabio made the clarification shortly after the Senate concluded a marathon sitting of about four and a half hours, which ended with the passage of the bill. The intense debate, which ran from roughly 2:00 p.m. to 6:26 p.m., centred on Clause 60, Subsection 3, and triggered widespread speculation online that lawmakers had rejected real-time electronic transmission of results.

Earlier reports suggested that the Senate turned down a proposed amendment that would have made it mandatory for INEC presiding officers to electronically transmit polling unit results in real time to the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal after signing and stamping result forms such as EC8A. Instead, the chamber was said to have retained the existing provision from the 2022 Electoral Act, which allows results to be transmitted in a manner determined by INEC.

However, addressing the chamber, Akpabio described the circulating claims as misleading and inaccurate. He stressed that the Senate neither removed nor voted against electronic transmission of results.

“Distinguished colleagues, social media is already awash with reports claiming that the Senate has rejected electronic transmission of results. That is not true,” Akpabio said. “What we did was to retain the provision that already exists in the Act and which was used in the 2022 general elections.”

He explained that the amendment process simply preserved the existing legal framework, which already recognises electronic transmission as part of Nigeria’s electoral process.

Akpabio urged Nigerians not to be misled by misinformation, adding that the official votes and proceedings of the Senate could be made available for verification.

“This Senate, under my leadership, has not rejected electronic transmission of results,” he said. “It is even in my interest, as a participant in the next election, for electronic transmission to continue. We have not gone backwards. We retained what was already in the law, and that provision remains valid.”