Dele Momodu, chieftain of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), on Tuesday demanded that Senate President Godswill Akpabio list the nine states where mobile networks are supposedly dead.
In a post on his X handle, Momodu brushed off Akpabio’s claim that the blackout makes real-time electronic transmission of election results impossible.
“Sir, name the nine states in which mobile networks are not working in Nigeria,” he wrote. “Let INEC immediately contract our telecoms giants to fix those places.
“We are not in an illiterate era. Phones and the internet run at full speed 40,000 feet in the sky. Ground-level excuses no longer wash.”
He added: “Would we scrap a more credible poll because nine of 36 states plus Abuja might hiccup? That only advertises Nigeria as hopelessly backward.”
The challenge followed Akpabio’s weekend remarks that insecurity had knocked out mobile service in parts of nine states. Speaking on proposed amendments to the Electoral Act, the Senate president warned that “real-time result transfer” would fail wherever there is no signal.
“Real-time transfer means that in over nine states where networks are down because of insecurity, there will be no election results,” Akpabio said. “If the national grid collapses and no network is working, there will be no results.”
Momodu countered that instead of shelving electronic collation, authorities should simply fix the coverage gaps. “Identify the nine states, solve the problem,” he said. “Don’t drag the whole country back into paper-era elections.”
