MEMBERS of the House of Representatives on Wednesday blamed the delay in the amendment of the Electoral Act on the ongoing nationwide registration/revalidation exercise by the All Progressives Congress.

The House said it would consider and pass the report on the Electoral Act Amendment Bill 2020, when its members, who are in their constituencies to campaign for APC membership, return.

Chairman of the House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Benjamin Kalu, who addressed journalists after the plenary, noted that the electoral bill is one of the priority legislations of the parliament.

Kalu said, “We have promised Nigerians that the bill will be out before the middle of this year, which is June. We are certain that it will not go beyond the middle of this year. The determination of the House is to get it discharged even before the end of April.

“As you all know, the report is ready; it was tabled for presentation yesterday (Tuesday). But due to the fact that most members wanted the report to come in and be considered the same day, and the House needed to be full to do that, it was stepped down.

“As you are aware, most members are at their various constituencies now particularly members of APC, doing the membership drive and if you consider the report and you cut out some members who are supposed to be there to see whether the clauses, paragraphs, the provision of the particular bill covers their interest or not, you are doing a disservice to the people that they represent.

“So, in the wisdom of the leadership of the house, it decided to suspend it until we are able to have a fuller house to be able to do the consideration because it is one of those laws that affects the whole nation.”

Registration and opportunity to correct past wrongs – Abdulraheem

In Ilorin, a former aspirant of the APC, in the 2019 Kwara State Governorship election, Professor Shuaib Oba-Abdulraheem has expressed confidence that the ongoing APC membership registration/revalidation exercise was an opportunity to right the wrongs of the past.

Oba-Abdulraheem, a former Chairman of the Federal Character Commission, said history would be unkind to the APC national leadership, if they failed to correct the wrongs done to party members.

He said, “I will like to appeal to all the stakeholders in the party members to be given a free hand to exercise their right to participate in the revalidation exercise.”