The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has announced that “the petition for the recall of Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan representing Kogi Central Senatorial District will be treated in strict compliance with legal frameworks.”
The commission reiterated that the recall process is firmly established in “the 1999 Constitution, the Electoral Act 2022 as well as the Commission’s detailed Regulations and Guidelines for Recall 2024, available on its website.”
Following deliberations, INEC confirmed it has “held meeting to discuss the petition for the recall of Natasha.”
This was officially disclosed on Tuesday in a statement by Sam Olumekun, “National Commissioner & Chairman Information and Voter Education Committee.”
The petition, originating from Kogi Central Senatorial District, arrived with “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.”
However, INEC pointed out a crucial omission, stating 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 its regulations and guidelines.”
Instead, the address given was simply “Okene, Kogi State”, which the commission described as “not a definite location for contacting the petitioners.” Additionally, “only the telephone number of ‘the lead petitioner’ is provided as against the numbers of all the other representatives of the petitioners,” the statement noted.
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INEC further clarified that “the recall of a legislator is the prerogative of registered voters in a constituency who sign a petition indicating loss of confidence in the legislator representing them. Once the petition meets the requirements of submission, as contained in our regulations, the Commission shall commence the verification of the signatures in each Polling Unit in an open process restricted to registered voters that signed the petition only.”
Both parties involved the petitioners and the senator in question will be allowed to appoint representatives to observe the verification process.
“The petitioners and the member whose recall is sought shall be at liberty to nominate agents to observe the verification, while interested observers and the media will also be accredited. At each Polling Unit, signatories to the petition shall be verified using the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS).”
Finally, INEC stated that “consequently, if the petitioners fully comply with the requirements of Clause 1(f) of the Regulations and Guidelines regarding the submission of their petition, the Commission will announce the next steps in line with the extant laws, regulations and guidelines.”
Meanwhile, “in the absence of a definite contact address, the Commission is making efforts to use other means to notify the representatives of the petitioners of the situation.”