Nigerian human rights lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN), has alleged that some governors in the All Progressives Congress (APC), are influencing President Muhammadu Buhari’s decision not to sign the electoral amendment bill. ayokinews.com reports
Speaking at the TheCable Colloquium on Wednesday, Falana stated that the main reason why the electoral bill hasn’t yet been signed by President Buhari, is because some Governors in the APC are pressing it down.
Falana further stated that the governors, who are members of the ruling APC, are worried about the electronic voting and transmission of result, which he claims will make electoral malpractice more difficult for corrupt politicians.
In his words: “The president is reluctant to give assent to the bill because the powerful governors in his party, the ruling party, are saying it is going to be much more expensive for them to run direct primaries.”
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“Therefore, throw away the baby and the bath water. But where they’re actually going is that those governors have not recovered from the shock of having electronic vote. They know manipulation will be reduced to the minimum.”
“That’s why they are asking the president to throw away that bill. They aren’t saying ‘take it back to the national assembly so that the area of direct primaries can be removed’.”
“The bill can be rejected only on one ground. The 2018 bill was rejected by the president on the ground that it’s too close to the 2019 election. Now, the president may also say signing this bill now may be too close to the election and might cause confusion.”
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/12/15/politics/biden-administration-jfk-documents/index.html