The Executive Director of Yiaga Africa, Samson Itodo, has said that the Nigerian Senate has betrayed the trust of Nigerians by retaining provisions of the 2022 Electoral Act that fail to expressly allow for real-time electronic transmission of election results from polling units.

Speaking in an interview with Saturday Telegraph yesterday, Itodo described the Senate’s position as a retrogressive step that creates uncertainty around the legal status of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) guidelines.

According to him, the Senate’s decision ignored existing legal precedents and undermines ongoing electoral reforms. “The courts have consistently held that new reforms cannot be introduced into the electoral process through guidelines alone; such reforms must be backed by law,” he said.

Itodo noted that the Supreme Court had ruled that electronic collation is not currently part of Nigeria’s electoral process, giving precedence to manual collation of results, while urging lawmakers to amend the law if Nigerians desire electronic transmission and collation.

“You now have a situation where the same National Assembly that is constitutionally empowered to update our laws and align them with judicial pronouncements has chosen to retain the 2022 provision.

“What does that tell you? It simply shows that some lawmakers are not interested in advancing or deepening the integrity of our electoral process. “My considered opinion is that the Senate has betrayed the trust of Nigerians.

Some lawmakers even claimed that the provision they approved made real-time electronic transmission of results to the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV) legally permissible, which is not the case. “The decision to retain the 2022 provision is the most distasteful and unfortunate development this week,” he said.

He stressed that the Senate exists to represent the will of the people, adding that both Nigerians and INEC have acknowledged that electronic transmission of results would strengthen electoral integrity.