Electoral Act: Senate sets up c’ttee to galvanise opinions of Senators

2026-01-30 - 05:58

By Henry Umoru ABUJA- THE Senate has set up an ad hoc committee to galvanise and distill all the opinions of Senators on the Electoral Act, 2022 (Repeal and Enactment) Bill. President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio made the announcement, yesterday, after a closed session that lasted between 1p.m. and 3p.m. The Committee has Senator Adeniyi Adegbonmire(APC, Ondo Central) as the Chairman while the members are Senators Adamu Aliero(APC, Kebbi Central); Aminu Tambuwal(PDP, Sokoto South); Adams Oshiomhole(APC, Edo North); Danjuma Goje(APC, Gombe Central); Tony Nwoye(LP, Anambra North) and Titus Zam(APC, Benue North West. The Clerk of the Senate, Emmanuel Odo will serve as Secretary. The committee which has 48 hours to complete its assignment, would report back at plenary on Tuesday next week. The Senators had during the executive session begun with the consideration of the Report of the Committee on Electoral Matters, Electoral Act, 2022 (Repeal & Enactment) Bill, 2026 (SB. 903 as presented by the Chairman, Senator Simon Lalong, APC, Plateau South. Akpabio explained that the closed session was convened to allow the Senators examine the proposed amendments and supporting documents before engaging in further legislative debate on the bill. Akpabio said the Senate has set up a small committee to further make contributions, galvanise, distill all the opinions of distinguished senators and present them to us for final deliberation on Tuesday. According to a copy obtained, highlights of some of the innovative provisions in the proposed Electoral Bill, 2025 that the Senators brainstormed on include limitation on election expenses, punishment for the offences of nomination from N50million to N75million to deter perpetrators. On pages 80-81, section 93 was amended by increasing expenses to be incurred while vying for different electoral positions and by placing a limit on such expenses and on pages 82-83, section 94, it was amended to control election expenses of political parties. Also included are offences of buying and selling voters’ cards with fine from N500,000 to N5million and a 10-year ban on perpetrators from eligibility to contest elections in Nigeria. On offences in respect of nomination, which is Section 120 (2) on page 115, it was amended to stipulate the punishment for the offences of nomination to be increased from N50million to N75million to deter perpetrators. On Continuous Registration, on page 9 of the report, section 10 of the bill was amended for inclusion of new paragraph “(c) National Identification Number, NIN,” to check inclusion of registration of illegal immigrants in the continuous registration exercise. The report read, “Submission of list of candidates and their affidavits by political parties. On page 27, section 29 was amended with the inclusion of subsections (7) and (9) as follows: “A candidate who does not meet the qualification stipulated in this clause, and presents himself to a political party, commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine of not less than N5million. “Format of ballot papers. On page 35, Section 42 (3) was amended by increasing the number of days within which a party is expected to inspect its identity appearing on samples of relevant electoral materials proposed for an election from 20 days to 60 days. “Polling Agents. On page 36, Section 43 now 42 was amended to give candidates power to nominate polling agents. ‘each candidate in consultation with his political party may, by notice in writing addressed to the Resident Electoral Commissioner of the state, appoint a polling agent for each polling unit and collation centre in the Local Government Area or Area Council for which it has candidate and the notice.”