Politics
2027 Election: N’Assembly in Crisis as Akpabio, Abbas Insist on Manual Result Transmission
What should have been a routine legislative correction to the Electoral Act Amendment Bill instead degenerated into one of the most dramatic sittings of the 10th Assembly, exposing deep partisan fault lines ahead of the 2027 general elections.
In the Senate, 15 lawmakers, led by Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe (ADC, Abia South), stood defiantly against a controversial proviso in Clause 60(3) that recognises the manually completed Form EC8A as the primary source of collation where electronic transmission fails.
In the House of Representatives, the minority caucus staged a walkout, accusing the Speaker Tajudeen Abbas leadership of railroading amendments and frustrating attempts to insist on mandatory real-time electronic transmission without caveats.
Outside the complex, protesters — joined by former Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesili — accused lawmakers of attempting to dilute electoral safeguards.
President of the Senate Akpabio and Speaker of the House of Reps Abbas
By sunset, both chambers had passed versions of the bill that preserve electronic upload of polling unit results to the Independent National Electoral Commission’s Result Viewing Portal, while stopping short of making real-time transmission mandatory without exception.
At the heart of the storm lies a familiar Nigerian dilemma – whether technology alone can be trusted to safeguard democracy.
Senate torn apart
Tuesday’s Senate plenary was tense from the outset.
The Upper Chamber had earlier passed the Electoral Act (Repeal and Re-Enactment) Bill, 2026, but was compelled to rescind its decision and recommit it to the Committee of the Whole after discrepancies were identified in several clauses, including those affecting timelines for the 2027 elections already announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
But it was Clause 60 — dealing with the transmission and collation of election results — that ignited tempers.
The final reenacted version of the controversial clause, particularly subsection (3), reads: “The Presiding Officer shall electronically transmit the results from each polling unit to the IREV portal, and such transmission shall be done after the prescribed Form EC8A has been signed and stamped by the Presiding Officer and/or countersigned by the candidates or polling agents where available, provided that if electronic transmission fails due to communication failure, Form EC8A shall remain the primary source of collation and declaration of the result.”
Proceedings later resumed with Abaribe demanding a division on the clause, insisting that senators must publicly record their positions.
The Abia South lawmaker had attempted a similar move during last week’s emergency plenary but withdrew under pressure, which sparked criticisms within the chamber.
His renewed insistence triggered a rowdy session but Senate Leader Opeyemi Bamidele intervened, stressing that “whether he has done it or not is now in the past. But it is within his (Abaribe) rights to call for it. Let us allow him.”
But Senate President Godswill Akpabio reminded the chamber of Abaribe’s earlier aborted attempt.
“People were mocking you on social media,” Akpabio said, noting that the previous demand had been withdrawn.
Opposition senators protested immediately, arguing that the matter was properly before the chamber.
Deputy Senate President Barau Jibrin cited Order 52(6) of the Senate Standing Orders, contending that it would be out of order to revisit provisions already ruled upon by the presiding officer.
That submission sparked uproar.
Senator Sunday Karimi briefly confronted Abaribe across the aisle as voices rose.
Bamidele insisted that since he had moved a motion for rescission, previous decisions were void, and Abaribe’s demand for a division was procedurally sound.
Each time Akpabio referenced Abaribe’s earlier withdrawal in a tone some senators described as mocking, opposition lawmakers shouted him down.
Eventually, the Senate President put the matter to a vote.
Fifty-five senators that cut across the ruling All Progressives Congress and a few opposition members — including Deputy Minority Leader Lere Oyewunmi, Wadada Aliyu (SDP, Nasarawa) and Amos Yohanna (PDP, Adamawa) — stood in support of retaining the manual backup proviso.
When those opposed to it were asked to rise, only Abaribe and 14 others stood, a development that led to the ‘ayes’ carrying the day.
For the second time in two weeks, the Senate approved electronic transmission with manual collation as a fallback.
Under the amended proviso, the manually completed and signed Form EC8A will constitute the primary basis for collation and declaration of results where electronic transmission is disrupted by network or communication challenges.
2027 poll
Before the explosive division, the Senate had reversed its earlier passage of the bill.
Rising under Order 52(6), Bamidele moved that the Electoral Act (Repeal and Re-Enactment) Bill, 2026 be rescinded and recommitted.
He explained that INEC’s announcement fixing the 2027 general elections for February 2027 had triggered fresh concerns.
Stakeholders argued that the proposed date conflicted with Clause 28 of the bill, which required elections to be scheduled at least 360 days before the expiration of tenure.
There were also concerns that February 2027 would fall within Ramadan, potentially affecting voter turnout and logistics.
Following the debate, the Senate amended Clause 28, reducing the mandatory notice period from 360 days to 300 days.
The revised clause now requires INEC to publish notice of election not later than 300 days before polling.
The 60-day reduction grants INEC flexibility to schedule presidential and National Assembly elections between late December 2026 and January 2027.
Lawmakers said the adjustment was necessary to accommodate religious sensitivities and logistical realities.
The motion also corrected discrepancies in the bill’s Long Title and multiple clauses — including Clauses 6, 9, 10, 22, 23, 28, 29, 32, 42, 47, 51, 60, 62, 64, 65, 73, 77, 86, 87, 89, 93 and 143.
A former Kano State Governor and leader of the Kwankwasiyya Movement, Rabiu Kwankwaso, says northern political leaders conducted a deliberate assessment of potential allies before settling on Peter Obi as the most capable partner to prosecute the 2027 presidential campaign.
He dismissed concerns about a hidden power struggle between his camp and Obi’s.Politics
Kwankwaso made the disclosure in an interview on Arise TV on Monday, offering one of his most detailed accounts yet of how the North-Southeast political alliance within the NDC was formed.
“I looked around together with our leadership in the north to say, okay, who do we think is capable? Who can come and work together with us honestly so that we can move this country? Along the line, we realised that Peter Obi is at the forefront of it. That’s why we all accepted to work together,” he said.Political candidate profile
Kwankwaso, a two-term former governor of Kano State and the presidential candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party in 2023, leads the Kwankwasiyya movement, a grassroots political force with deep loyalty across Kano and parts of northern Nigeria.Nigeria travel guide
He left the NNPP amid internal disputes before joining the NDC alongside Obi earlier this month.
Obi, a former governor of Anambra State, ran on the Labour Party platform in 2023 and drew massive youth-driven support across the South and urban centres, though he did not win.
Both men formally joined the NDC on Sunday, May 3, defecting from the crisis-hit African Democratic Congress.Politics
At the party’s national convention on Saturday in Abuja, Kwankwaso backed the NDC’s decision to zone its 2027 presidential ticket to the South, describing it as a step toward fairness, healing and national cohesion.
Responding to a question about whether the alliance concealed a quiet rivalry between both camps, Kwankwaso argued that friction between principals and their deputies was a product of greed, not structural tension.
“The problem people are having, especially leaders, is that they are too greedy to the extent that they begin to have issues. There is so much to do. You don’t have to fight your deputy,” he said.
He said his record as a former deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, and later as governor of Kano State, showed that political partnerships could hold under pressure.
“I had an opportunity to work with my speaker and we worked very well. I was in Kano for eight years despite the difficulty of my then deputy governor. We were able to work for eight years amicably to the extent that I handed over to him,” he said.
Kwankwaso extended the argument beyond his personal experience, saying the same principle applied at the federal level.
In the Senate and other places, in the NDDC, we worked amicably with people. There is so much to be done and that’s why you have even ministers, other executives, advisors and so on. I don’t see from my experiences of the past why deputies or vice would fight with the president or governor,” he said.
He grounded the alliance in Nigerian political history, tracing a lineage of productive North-Southeast partnerships from the first republic to the present.Nigeria travel guide
“Right from the beginning, this sort of alliance has been in existence. Now we are going back to what Tafawa Balewa did during their time,” he said.
He also referenced the collaboration between former Prime Minister Tafawa Balewa and leaders of the NCNC, as well as that of former President Shehu Shagari and his vice president, Alex Ekwueme, in the second republic.
“So also in the second republic, immediately after the war, our leaders, Shagari and others, worked very closely with the southeast, with Alex Ekwueme as his vice president. They are our friends. We want to work together with them,” he said.Politics
Kwankwaso also noted that subsequent administrations had shifted power-sharing away from the South-East, a pattern he suggested the current alliance was correcting.
“There was a change during the third republic where for many obvious reasons an election was annulled and the government under the military decided to bring in Shonekan from the South-West.
Even after that, the military and other leaders worked together and brought in Chief Olusegun Obasanjo from the South-West again. Even Bola Tinubu probably is a beneficiary of all that,” he said.
He was emphatic that the choice of Obi was not driven by regional sentiment alone.
“It wasn’t just because we are going to the South-West just because of the South-West. No. We realised that Peter Obi is at the forefront of it and that’s why we all accepted to work together,” he said.Political candidate profile
The movement of both men into the NDC has triggered a wave of defections, with senators, House of Representatives members and political blocs aligned with their former coalition gravitating toward the new party, rapidly reshaping calculations ahead of the 2027 elections.
The alliance pairs Kwankwaso’s northern grassroots structure and disciplined voter mobilisation with Obi’s national youth engagement and urban electoral momentum, positioning the NDC as one of the main opposition platforms set to challenge President Bola Tinubu and the ruling All Progressives Congress in 2027
Former Kano State Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso has dismissed suggestions that his exit from the African Democratic Congress has created a damaging split in the opposition.
He said he and Atiku Abubakar may yet work together before the 2027 general election.
Kwankwaso spoke in an interview on Arise TV on Monday, responding to concerns that his move to the Nigeria Democratic Congress alongside Peter Obi had effectively divided the opposition into two competing blocs ahead of the polls.
“Now, we may still work together before the election. I personally, and I think even Obi himself, decided to leave ADC not because we are fighting with Atiku or anybody there. We decided to leave that party because we realised that there are some issues,” he said
He said the ADC was contending with three major unresolved problems that he believed would make it difficult for the party to field candidates, without specifying what those issues were.
“Whether they will be able to field candidates in that party or not is just a matter of time. It’s not like we had a primary election,” he said
The remarks come after Atiku recently claimed on Arise TV that Kwankwaso’s popularity was confined to Kano State and further divided there by Governor Abba Yusuf.
Atiku, who is seeking the presidency on the ADC platform, also described himself as the most popular politician of northern extraction, saying none of his contemporaries, including Kwankwaso, Aminu Tambuwal and Nasir El-Rufai, commanded a voter base across the North as wide as his.
Kwankwaso did not engage the slight directly, but made clear he bore no grudge.
“Politics is just like a game. I’m not fighting anybody and I’m not expecting anybody to fight me. I have no issue with that. I think we are past that level now,” he said.
He challenged those predicting a vote split in Kano to wait for the election result before drawing conclusions.
“Let’s wait for the election and see whether votes are split in Kano or not,” he said.
Kwankwaso also acknowledged a history of working with Atiku, recalling that he served as the former vice president’s northern coordinator during the 2019 presidential election.
“There was an election in 2019 in Port Harcourt. He won the election. I was his coordinator for the north. We worked for him,” he said.
He traced his broader relationship with Atiku to the 2015 APC presidential primary in Lagos, where he placed second behind Muhammadu Buhari, with Atiku third.
By Okey Maduforo, Awka
The Anambra State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has expelled 30 members of the party for instituting legal actions against the party.
The affected members include some aspirants for the National Assembly, and their expulsion may disqualify them from participating in the party’s primary elections.
Disclosing this shortly after the meeting of the State Executive Committee (SEC) of the party, the State Publicity Secretary, Dr. Sir Valentine Iyiegbu, told reporters that the decision was in line with Section 21, Subsection 5 of the party’s constitution.
“The party discussed those who took the party to court, and many of them are contesting for the House of Representatives tickets of the party,” he said.
“The matter comes up tomorrow, and the SEC stated that what the party constitution stipulates would be followed, which is outright expulsion from the party under Article 21, Subsection 5.”
“The SEC actually ratified their expulsion because they did not exhaust all the internal avenues provided by the party to resolve their grievances,” he added.
Iyiegbu noted that the only reprieve available to the expelled members would be for them to withdraw their court cases.
“It is only when the matters are withdrawn from the court that the party can consider listening to them,” he said.
Speaking on the party’s primary elections, he explained:
“In the case of those contesting for the tickets of the Federal House of Representatives, all the eleven positions have aspirants, while for the Senate, the three positions are also being contested. The screening committees were here to perform their duties,” he noted.
The party also ratified the appointment of a five-man Primary Elections Committee headed by Sir Izuchukwu Okeke, the State Organising Secretary of the party.
By PETRUS OBI
Frontline aspirant for the Aninri/Awgu/Oji-River Federal Constituency seat, Anayo Onwuegbu, has successfully completed the screening exercise conducted by the All Progressives Congress House of Representatives screening panel in Abuja ahead of the party primaries scheduled for Friday, May 15, 2026.
Speaking after the exercise, Onwuegbu expressed satisfaction with the screening process, describing it as a reflection of the party’s commitment to internal democracy, transparency, and credible leadership selection ahead of the 2027 general elections.
The aspirant, who is seeking to represent Aninri/Awgu/Oji-River Federal Constituency under the platform of the APC, stated that he remains focused and prepared to continue to offer quality representation to the people of the constituency.
According to him, “The process once again highlights our party’s commitment to internal democracy, transparency, and the emergence of credible leadership as we prepare for the 2027 general elections.”
He reaffirmed his dedication to the development of the constituency, pledging to serve the people with commitment and purpose if elected.
The APC House of Representatives primaries are expected to hold nationwide on Friday as aspirants battle for the party’s tickets ahead of the 2027 elections.
By Okey Maduforo, Awka
Ten communities that make up Anaocha Local Government Area of Anambra State are set for a showdown with their traditional rulers following the alleged suspension of the zoning arrangement for the Anambra State House of Assembly elections.
Recall that on April 7, 2022, the traditional rulers, in a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), resolved that the House of Assembly seats for Anaocha I and Anaocha II constituencies would rotate among the ten communities, with each town occupying the seat for two terms.
The traditional rulers further resolved that the rotation would subsist irrespective of the political party through which lawmakers emerge, noting that the arrangement was aimed at ensuring that all ten communities have the opportunity to produce members of the State Assembly in the interest of equity and fairness.
However, the Anaocha Equity Forum, shortly after its meeting, expressed concern over the alleged suspension of the zoning arrangement.
Speaking, the Convener of the Anaocha Equity Forum, Mr. Valentine Okoye, said the forum would not take kindly to what it described as acts capable of destabilising the council area, adding that any such move would be resisted.
“This is a Memorandum of Understanding signed by our traditional rulers, and it has been respected until now. We in the Anaocha Equity Forum see this as a slap on the sensibilities of the ten communities that make up the area,” he said.
“We urge members of the public, political parties, and stakeholders to disregard the alleged position of the traditional rulers, as it does not represent the views and aspirations of our people.
“Our traditional rulers should be mindful of their roles as fathers of their respective communities. They should also understand that they would be held responsible for whatever backlash or consequences may arise from this recent position.
“We call on Governor Charles Soludo to call the traditional rulers to order so that the peace currently enjoyed in Anaocha Local Government Area will not be disrupted,” he stated.
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