By Kingston Magare
The Independent National Electoral Commission, Tuesday rejected the recall petition by Kogi Central constituency for Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan.
According to the INEC the petitioners failed to provide their home addresses, email addresses and phone numbers, which is a requirement by the INEC regulations for the recall. INEC commissioner and chairman Information and Voter Education Committee, Sam Olumekun, said in statement:
“The commission held its regular weekly meeting today, Tuesday, 25th March 2025. Among other issues, the meeting discussed the petition for the recall of the Senator representing Kogi Central Senatorial District.
“The process of recall is enshrined in the 1999 Constitution, the Electoral Act 2022 as well as the commission’s detailed Regulations and Guidelines for Recall 2024, available on our website. All petitions will be treated in strict compliance with the legal framework.
“The petition from Kogi Central Senatorial District was accompanied by six bags of documents said to be signatures collected from over half of the 474,554 registered voters spread across 902 Polling Units in 57 Registration Areas (Wards) in the five Local Government Areas of Adavi, Ajaokuta, Ogori/Magongo, Okehi and Okene.
“The commission’s immediate observation is that the representatives of the petitioners did not provide their contact address, telephone number(s) and e-mail address(es) in the covering letter forwarding the petition through which they can be contacted as provided in Clause 1(f) of our Regulations and Guidelines.
“The address given is ‘Okene, Kogi State’, which is not a definite location for contacting the petitioners. Only the telephone number of ‘the lead petitioner’ is provided as against the numbers of all the other representatives of the petitioners.”
He added that once the regulations are complied with the INEC will initiate the recall process with the verification of signatures who signed the petition. Signature verification will be conducted using the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, and media and other observers will be accredited.
Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan was suspended from the Senate for six for alleged “misconduct” after a fall-out between her and Senate president Godswill Akpabio over sitting arrangements on the Senate floor. She latter levelled allegations of sexual harassment against Senator Akpabio.
