The Code of Conduct Bureau has received a petition from the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project calling for an investigation against Senate members and other public officials for suspected irregularities in the passing of the Tax Reform Laws and the Electoral Act Amendment Bill.

Kolawole Oluwadare, the deputy director of SERAP, said in a statement issued on Sunday that the organization is demanding a prompt, thorough, and efficient investigation into claims that some senators removed provisions on the electronic transmission of election results from the Electoral Act Amendment Bill during plenary, even though the provisions had received majority approval and there had been no discussion about their removal.

The Electoral Act Amendment Bill's provisions on electronic transmission of election results were purportedly removed by some Senate members during plenary, according to SERAP, after the majority of senators had voted in favour of their inclusion and without any discussion of the proposed removal.

Additionally, the organization called on the Code of Conduct Bureau to look into claims of changes made to the Tax Reform Bills, which allegedly led to discrepancies between the harmonised versions that were approved by the National Assembly and the copies that the Federal Government eventually signed into law and gazetted.

In a similar vein, the National Assembly recently claimed that the tax reform laws gazetted by the Federal Government and the measures enacted by the legislative body contained certain major changes and unlawful alterations.

Abdussamad Dasuki, a lawmaker from Sokoto, brought up the matter under a matter of privilege, alerting the House to the purported differences between the copies that the Federal Government gazetted and the harmonised versions of the tax reform bills that were approved by both houses of the National Assembly.

“The lawmakers said the alterations contained in the gazetted copies did not receive legislative approval. These alleged unlawful alterations raise questions over the legality and legitimacy of both the law-making processes and the versions of the tax laws circulated by the Federal Ministry of Information,” the petition added.

However, the Senate has denied removing provisions on the electronic transmission of election results, insisting that it only deleted the phrase “real time” from the clause, citing concerns raised by the judiciary.

Similarly, the National Assembly said it initiated investigations into the alleged discrepancies in the tax bills and subsequently issued a “certified” version of the Acts to resolve the inconsistencies. The laws took effect on January 1, 2026.

According to SERAP, the petition was submitted in accordance with sections 5 and 13 of the Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act and paragraphs 1 and 9 of the Code of Conduct for Public Officers found in the Fifth Schedule, Part I of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).

The group claimed that modifications to the Tax Reform Bill made without the National Assembly's consent and changes to bill provisions made without discussion or due process tainted the procedures that led to the Electoral Act Amendment Bill's passage and the signing of the Tax Reform Laws.