Senator Onyekachi Nwaebonyi, representing Ebonyi North Senatorial District, has defended the Senate’s amendment to the Electoral Act, insisting that electronic transmission of results to INEC’s Result Viewing Portal (IReV) is now mandatory.
Speaking on Arise Tv News, Nwaebonyi emphasised that the use of the word “shall” in the amended Section 60(3) removes discretion from presiding officers.
“That word ‘shall’ makes it mandatory,” he said, arguing that for the first time, electronic transmission is expressly inserted into Nigerian law.
According to him, this gives courts the legal basis to recognise results uploaded to IReV — a provision he said was absent in the 2022 Electoral Act.
Responding to criticism over the clause allowing manual collation where transmission fails, Nwaebonyi said the provision only accounts for temporary network or technical hitches.
He compared the process to bank transfers that may delay but eventually reflect in an account.
He explained that if results do not upload immediately due to network issues, the presiding officer is not required to cancel the result. Instead, Form EC8A would be used for onward collation while the electronic upload processes in the system.
He stressed that polling agents and security officials would witness the process, ensuring transparency at the polling unit level.
Courts Will Prioritise IReV Results — Nwaebonyi
The senator, who is a lawyer, argued that in the event of discrepancies between manually collated results and those uploaded to IReV, courts would recognise the electronically transmitted version.
He also mentioned the importance of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) in preventing fraud, noting that discrepancies between accredited voters and votes cast would automatically invalidate results.
Nwaebonyi described the amendment as a historic step by the 10th Senate under Senate President Godswill Akpabio, saying it responds to longstanding public demands for transparency.
The Ebonyi Senator, maintained that the amendment strengthens Nigeria’s electoral framework ahead of future elections and urged critics to prioritise national interest over partisan politics.
While Nwaebonyi may be a trained lawyer, he is not a judge. Advocates of electronic transmission oppose any clause allowing manual transmission of election results under any circumstance, since such provisions create loopholes that could be interpreted widely during election adjudications.
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