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• Berate APC governors for lobbying the President to withhold assent

‘Seun Ibukun-Oni, Abuja

Daily Courier – The National Assembly Caucus of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to, without further delay, sign the re-amended Electoral Act 2010 (Amendment) Bill 2022 into law.

The PDP lawmakers also berated the Progressives governors forum, a group of All Progressives Congress (APC) governors for lobbying the President not to sign the reworked Bill.

The PDP Caucus spoke on Tuesday during its meeting with members of party’s Board of Trustees (BoT) at the Senate wing of the National Assembly complex in Abuja.

DAILY COURIER reports that the reworked Electoral Bill was on Monday transmitted to President Buhari for his assent after the Bill was passed by the National Assembly last week.

The Senate Minority Leader and chairman of the caucus, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, said having reworked the Electoral Bill as demanded President Muhammadu Buhari, the Bill should be assented by him without further delay.

“Now that we have bent backwards, no any excuse or reason should be given again. Provisions of the Bill are very critical for expected credibility of the 2023 general elections,” Abaribe said.

For his part, Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, Hon. Ndudi Elumelu, alleged that governors on the platform of APC were lobbying the President not to sign the reworked Bill.

This, he said, will be resisted by the PDP and forward-looking Nigerians because of other very important provisions in the Bill like section 52 which deals with electronic transmission of election results.

“The plan of using mandatory direct primaries to scuttle the Bill has failed because the National Assembly has widened the scope as requested for by the President.

“No any other unresolved issue or observation is left in the Bill transmitted to the President on Monday this week.

“No more excuses, no more delay, it should be signed in the interest of credibility and sanctity of electoral process in the country,” Elumelu added.