Prof Pat Utomi, a rights activist has described the amendment of the 2026 Electoral Act by the National Assembly which excluded real-time transmission of election results as a treason against the Nigerian people.
As such, the Professor of Political Economics and Development expert has urged the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation to immediately commence treason trial against the lawmakers in the Nigerian Senate and House of Representatives.
Prof Utomi spoke on Channels Television programme, Sunrise Daily on Wednesday, few hours after the lawmakers in both chambers passed the 2026 Electoral Act amendment bill, which has generated serious furore among Nigerians.
The magazine reports that the lawmakers in both chambers had a rowdy session on Wednesday while passing the bill, as some members of the opposition parties in the House of Representatives walked out in protest, while the majority members of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC went ahead to pass the bill.
Not a few Nigerians have knocked the lawmakers for ignoring their calls for the a clause requiring the real-time transmission of election results to be included the Act. Other Nigerians while condemning the NASS over the issue, described the lawmakers action as a barefaced robbery of the will of Nigerians.
The magazine also recalls that some Nigerians, including members of the civil society had last week staged a protest to the National Assembly demanding that the clause be included to promote transparent, free and fair elections in the country.
Also on Tuesday, some Nigerians who thronged the NASS to protest the removal of the clause, including fiery Kaduna Pastor, Isa Buba, Omoyele Sowore, Publisher of Sahara Reporters were teargassed by policemen who claimed they were trying to maintain order. The protesters said their protest was totally peaceful.
Reacting, Prof Utomi said the lawmakers have deliberately subverted the wills off Nigerians on the issue, saying their action was self-serving, and should not go unpunished.
“what they did is a treason against the country, the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice should begin. to prosecute them,” he said.
He stressed that the lawmakers have decided to represent ‘themselves rather than representing Nigerians, saying their action represents “cheating, stealing and treason”.
Similarly, the lawmaker representing Ogbaru Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, Victor Ogene, while speaking on the same programme, said it’s a big shame what some lawmakers did yesterday by excluding the clause that required real time election results transmission.
Ogene, the Labour Party, LP Caucus Leader in the Lower Chamber knocked the APC lawmakers, for citing the absence of internet network in some parts of the country as reasons for not supporting the clause, saying the claim is untrue based on the testimony of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC that over 90 percent of communities in the country have internet facilities.
“I feel a little bit of shame, for some individual to say there’s no internet in their villages. What have they done to bring internet to their villages,” the LP lawmaker said.
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