Senator representing Bauchi South Senatorial District, Sen. Lawal Gumau, on Friday, kicked against moves to amend the Electoral Act to give room for electronic transmission of results ahead of 2023 General Elections.
Gumau who stated this while speaking to newsmen in Abuja said Nigeria was not ripe for electronic transmission of results.
Gumau said: “I’m not in support of the electronic transmission of results. We are not ready. It is best if we are equipped and ready to secure a website that nobody can hack.
“If we say for 2023, we are going to do transmit results electronically, is it possible? Everybody knows that it is only the person with the highest number of votes that will get it.
“So results should be announced at the Polling Units and Collation Centres where applicable.
“Let us not start what we cannot do,” he said.
On the outcome of the screening of Ms. Lauretta Onochie, a National Commissioner nominee for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Gumau, a member of the Senate Committee on INEC said that let justice is served.
“If the justice is that we don’t screen her, screen her ours. If justice is allowing her to get the position, that is where I support it.
“I like seeing myself fighting for justice whenever there is injustice. I want to be a bridge-builder so that justice must exist.
“Whether we like it or not, a national commissioner must come from south-south and it is the same President that will appoint him.
“President Buhari appointed Onochie, we can’t see Onochie as a northerner or a southerner we have to see Onochie as a presidential nominee.
“In our duties as legislators, we work with the law and not with any member’s sentiment, not with CSO’s sentiments.
“I’m supporting the law. If the law says Onochie should not go in as INEC commissioner, that is my position.”
NAN reports that the nomination of Onochie had triggered an outcry from opposition parties, the media, and some Civil Society Organisations (CSOs).
The CSOs had petitioned the Senate Committee on INEC, alleging that Onochie was a card-carrying member of a political party, hence not qualified to be appointed as an INEC national commissioner