Ebun Francis |
The house of representatives members in the All Progressives Congress (APC) on Wednesday said it will oppose any attempt to override President Buhari’s veto of the amended electoral act amendment bill.
President Buhari had while rejecting the reform bill for the fourth time, cited disruption to the 2019 elections as one the reasons for rejecting the bill.
The president’s decision has generated controversy at the national assembly, with some of the lawmakers hinting at a possibility of overriding the president’s veto and going ahead to pass the bill.
But Femi Gbajabiamila, chairman of the APC representatives caucus, said Buhari was right to have withheld his assent to the bill while addressing newsmen on Wednesday.
He said, “A punctuation can change the meaning of a provision of the law. The national assembly should perfect the document, send it back; the president will sign it.”
“And it makes no sense to override in the case of an important document. We don’t have to use a fire brigade approach; it is too close to the elections, and that is the reason for the ECOWAS protocol. It is too late in the game to begin to tinker with the rules.
“If they are able to muster two-thirds and push it forward, there is nothing we can do. But as a party, we are not going to be part of it. And we have more than the numbers to stop that.”
Part of the issues in contention regarding the bill is the mandatory use of card readers, which Gbajabiamila said will disenfranchise many Nigerians.
“We have seen instances where the card readers have failed,” he said. “What Mr. President has done is to protect everybody in Nigeria. Millions could be disenfranchised and we don’t want that.”