Senator Ireti Kingibe, representing the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), has alleged that the Electoral Act was fundamentally distorted during its final drafting.
Speaking on Monday during Arise Television’s ‘Prime Time’, the lawmaker disclosed that the version ultimately presented bore little resemblance to the original reform document. She revealed that she served on the Electoral Reforms Committee, which spent two years producing a cross-party agreement.
“What they presented was not in the original one,” Kingibe said. “I was on the committee for the electoral reforms. Two years we worked on a document that was acceptable, and we did bicameral sittings. It was not just the Senate; the Senate and the House of Representatives sat, as well as INEC and some CSOs.”
She further criticised the absence of standard security features on ballot papers, stating: “In what election have we ever conducted, where INEC ballot papers did not have security measures? It has never happened.”
The senator concluded: “We brought a document that we felt would give us free and fair elections. Every aspect of it was turned upside down.”
