By Abiola Olawale
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has officially communicated to the suspended Senator for Kogi Central, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, regarding a petition from her constituents aimed at recalling her from the Senate.
This comes after the recall petition, titled “Constituents’ Petition for the Recall of Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan on the Grounds of Loss of Confidence,” was submitted to INEC’s headquarters in Abuja on Monday, March 24, 2025, by Charity Ijese, who said she is doing so on behalf of constituents from Kogi Central.
Accompanied by six bags of documents purportedly containing signatures from over 250,000 of the district’s 474,554 registered voters, Ijese accused Akpoti-Uduaghan of gross misconduct, abuse of office, and a “pattern of deceit.”
However, INEC, in a statement issued by its National Commissioner and Chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee, Sam Olumekun, declared that the petition failed to meet essential submission requirements.
Olumekun stated that the petitioners did not provide verifiable contact addresses, telephone numbers, or email addresses for all representatives, as mandated by Clause 1(f) of its recall guidelines.
Meanwhile, INEC, in an update on the recall exercise, said the representatives of the petitioners, who submitted the petition and bags of collected signatures a couple of days ago, have now submitted their contact addresses and phone numbers as provided for in Clause 2(a) of the Commission’s Regulations and Guidelines for Recall 2024.
“The next step is to scrutinise the list of the signatories submitted by the petitioners to ascertain that the petition is signed by more than one-half (over 50%) of the registered voters in the constituency.
“This will be done in the coming days. The outcome, which will be made public, shall determine the next step to be taken by the Commission.
“We once again reassure Nigerians that the process will be open and transparent,” a statement signed by Olumekun on Wednesday evening stated.
