Akpabio suggests changes to Electoral Act after lawmakers miss party tickets

The President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, has said the National Assembly may change parts of the Electoral Act 2026. He mentioned this after recent events showed what he called unintended effects of the law on lawmakers trying to get re-elected.

Mr Akpabio spoke on Tuesday at the start of the 2026 National Assembly Open Week and during the presentation of the 10th National Assembly’s Third-Year Legislative Scorecard in Abuja.

His comments come weeks after many senators and House of Representatives members could not get their parties’ tickets in the primaries for the 2027 elections.

The Senate President said while the Electoral Act had helped make party primaries more peaceful, some rules in it had unintentionally turned lawmakers into “victims” of the laws they made.

“From even the Electoral Act that we passed, you can see not so many people were killed, if any, in many of the states of the federation during these primaries.

“But we shall tinker with the Act again to make sure that we are not the victims of our own actions,” he said.

Mr Akpabio did not point out which parts of the law might be changed. Still, he promised lawmakers that the National Assembly would look into the law to stop future lawmakers from facing the same issues.

“I assure you that we shall tinker with it so that future members and future senators will not have difficulty going back. Because the more people with experience who come back, the more the country benefits from their activities,” he stated.