Senate rejected accountability, not E-Transmission of results – Okaba

The Global President of the Ijaw National Congress (INC), Prof. Benjamin Okaba, has said the Senate’s decision on the electronic transmission of election results amounted to a rejection of accountability rather than of technology.

Speaking in an interview on Friday, Okaba said the Senate rejected the principle of finality in elections, insisting that votes cast at polling units should remain the same through the collation process to the final declaration.

“The Senate rejected the simple, powerful idea that the vote cast by the citizen in the sunlight should be the same vote counted at the end of the journey,” he said.

According to him, the decision has shifted the burden of ensuring credible elections from the legislature back to citizens, polling units and the streets.

Okaba stressed that the issue before the Senate was not technical, noting that it was not about servers, network coverage or the cost of BVAS machines, but about political will.

“The real question was whether we, as a nation, are ready to permanently restrain the forces of electoral fraud that have plagued our democracy for generations. Their answer was a resounding no,” he said.

He described the Senate’s action as a retreat from electoral integrity on the eve of an election year, adding that lawmakers chose opaque practices over transparency.

While noting that the decision did not come as a surprise, Okaba said it was deeply disappointing, arguing that the Senate chose to protect entrenched political interests rather than strengthen democracy.

He explained that mandatory electronic transmission would have ensured that polling unit results are uploaded immediately to the INEC Results Viewing Portal (IReV), creating a permanent, public digital record to safeguard the will of the people.

“This would have dismantled the corrupt industry of result manipulation at the ward, local government and state levels,” he said.

However, he noted that the Senate retained discretionary and delayed transmission, leaving the process vulnerable and without firm legal backing.

Okaba described the development as a strategic failure, warning that it weakens electoral safeguards and betrays public trust built after the passage of the 2022 Electoral Act.

He added that opposition parties, including the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party, have rightly described the decision as retrogressive and a betrayal, arguing that it favours incumbents and entrenched power structures.

Responding to claims by Senate President Godswill Akpabio that electronic transmission was not rejected, Okaba said the argument was a legal deflection.

“They retained the word but removed its force. That is not a defence; it is a confession,” he said.

Okaba further warned that the decision sets the tone for the 2027 elections, which he said would be conducted under the same fragile legal framework responsible for the current crisis of confidence in the electoral process.

According to him, the move risks deepening voter apathy and places electoral integrity solely on the resolve of INEC leadership and the vigilance of party agents and observers nationwide.