By Sunday Aborisade and Maritha Ebolosue
The Senate on Sunday insisted that the National Assembly had the power to make laws on mode of elections, including transmission of results.
The Spokesperson for the red chamber, Senator Ajibola Basiru, stated this in an interview with one of our correspondents.
He was reacting to a declaration by the Independent National Electoral Commission that the 1999 constitution gave it the power to determine and adopt any mode of elections.
But Senior lawyers, including Mike Ozekhome and Tayo Oyetibo, in separate interviews with The PUNCH supported INEC.
The fresh controversy over the power of the National Assembly came to the fore on Sunday as the joint conference committee of the two chambers of federal legislature meets this week to harmonise the versions of the electoral bill passed by the Senate and the House of Representatives.
The Senate, had on July 15, in its amendments to the Electoral Act, inserted a clause which mandated the electoral umpire to rely on the verdict of the National Communications Commission before it could transmit election results by electronic means.
The House of Representatives however passed a different version which allowed INEC to transmit election results electronically, where and when practicable.
Credit: The Punch.
