A Federal High Court sitting in Lokoja has blocked the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from receiving, accepting, or acting on any petition allegedly containing “fictitious signatures and names” aimed at initiating a recall process against Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan.
The ruling is based on an ex parte application for an interim injunction, supported by an affidavit of extreme urgency and other court processes sworn to by Anebe Jacob Ogirima on behalf of himself and four other plaintiffs, all of whom are registered voters and constituents of Kogi Central Senatorial District.
Presiding judge Justice Isa H. Dashen, ordered that INEC, its staff, agents, privies, or assigns must not receive, accept, or act “in any way whatsoever on any purported petitions submitted to the defendant by any person or persons whatsoever, containing fictitious signatures and names of purported members of Kogi State Central Senatorial District of Kogi State” and must not conduct “any referendum whatsoever upon such Petition for the purpose of initiating a re-call process of Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan as Senator representing the said Senatorial District in the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” pending the determination of a Motion on Notice.
