There are indications that President Muhammadu Buhari may assent to the Electoral Act Amendment Bill on Wednesday.
This indication came hours after the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, told Channels Television that the President will sign the Electoral Act Amendment Bill into law soon.
Sources in the Presidency have put the likely time to assent to the bill as tomorrow, Wednesday, February 23.
The sources revealed that all is now set for the President to append his signature to the bill.
Mr Adesina had during an interview on a Channels Television programme, ‘Sunrise Daily,’ said that President Buhari “will sign the bill any moment from now.”
He had said on Tuesday morning, “It could be today, it could be tomorrow, it could be anytime, but within the 30 days. It could be signed today; it could be signed tomorrow. In a matter of hours, not days. Hours could be 24 hours, it could be 48 hours; not days, not weeks.”
This hint also came amid protests by civil society groups in Abuja demanding that President Buhari assent the bill.
Civil society groups had on Tuesday morning gathered at the Unity Fountain in Abuja, displaying various placards, asking the President to sign the bill.
Recall that the National Assembly had on January 31, transmitted the re-amended Electoral Act Amendment Bill to President Buhari for assent.
President Buhari’s Senior Special Assistant on NASS Matters, Senate, Senator Babajide Omoworare, had explained that the transmission of the bill was in line with the provisions of Section 58 (3) of the 1999 Constitution and the Acts Authentication Act Cap. A2 LFN 2004.
