President Muhammadu Buhari is expected to sign the long-awaited Electoral Act Amendment Bill 2021, on Friday, authoritative presidency sources said.

The sources confirmed that the president would be signing the bill into law around 12:00 p.m. on the day.

The office of the president revealed that arrangements had been finalised for the president to sign the bill into law, finally putting all anxieties to rest.

A source, who spoke on conditions of anonymity, said “all these anxieties will disappear by Friday afternoon. He will be signing the bill around noon of that day.

“I believe he has taken his time so that the act can be as unassailable as possible.”

The latest confirmation runs foul of an earlier assurance by the president’s spokesman Femi Adesina that the document will be signed in a “matter of hours.”

Mr Adesina had, while appearing on a Channels TV show on Tuesday morning said “He (Buhari) will sign it (the bill) any moment from now.”

“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,” he emphasised.

The National Assembly transmitted the Electoral Act Amendment Bill 2021 to the president on January 31, a second time, having reportedly revised the bill, which he withheld his assent to for some noted reasons.

The president had withheld his assent to the bill in November 2021, citing the cost of conducting direct primary elections and security challenges as part of the reasons for his decision.

(NAN)