House to List Electoral Act Amendment Bill Soon

Following the fall-out of the recently concluded Bayesla and Kogi states governorship elections, the Minority Caucus in the House of Representatives has said that the Electoral Act Amendment Bill would soon be listed for consideration in the House.

The Minority Leader of the House, Hon. Ndudi Elumelu, disclosed this while addressing journalists at the end of plenary yesterday.

The media briefing followed a statement made at the plenary by Hon. Leke Abejide (Kogi, ADC), saying that the whole House was in support of what happened at the last Saturday’s election.

But Elumelu swiftly raised a point of order, saying the minority caucus was not in support of the outcome of the elections.

Speaking on behalf of the minority caucus at the briefing, the minority leader stated categorically that the PDP caucus was not impressed with the mode of election, especially considering the loss of lives.

He said that election is not meant to lose lives because the essence of coming into governance is to represent the people, adding that if those that would be represented are killed, then who are political office holders going to represent.

According to him, “Take for instance, if you look at the videos that are going viral, PDP state woman leader in Kogi State was burnt alive in her house, Senator Dino Melaye in his unit, his nephew was killed and in Bayesla State, the same thing - ballot box snatching. So, we came here for the purpose of registering that we are not in favour of the outcome of the election.”

“Because we have so many bills that are lined up for presentation, like that of Electoral Act will not go the novel, it will be something that will come under Committee of the Whole. It is already in process and very soon it will be listed.”

Also, the Deputy Minority Leader, Hon. Toby Okechukwu, said that the essence of the briefing was to share their concerns with regard to the trajectory of the democracy.