Electoral Act amendment: Senate speaks on ‘working against Buhari’

The Senate in Wednesday stated it followed due process in the adoption and passage of the amendment to the Electoral Act.

Its spokesperson, Senator Sabi Abdullahi, also debunked claims that the change in the sequence of elections was targeted at President Muhammad Buhari.

Abdullahi insisted that the modification was in tandem with the rules guiding legislative procedures in the Senate and the House of Representatives.

“This amendment covers seven core areas of our electoral process. For us in the senate, the emphasis is deepening the democratic process,” he said.

“By our procedures, the senate has passed its own version, the house has passed its own version. The next thing to do is to have a conference committee to harmonize.

“Our rule says whatever position we have taken and there is a similar one in the house, we harmonise, but where the house has taken a position that we have not taken, we are bound compulsorily to adopt that of the house.

“Where the senate has taken a position and the house has not, that conference committee is bound to adopt the recommendation from the senate. I think within the context of this particular assignment, that is what happened.”