Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan has criticised the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for failing to reject outright a petition seeking her recall, alleging that the commission’s response signals bias.
INEC confirmed on Tuesday, March 25, that it had received the petition, which reportedly contains signatures from over half of the 474,554 registered voters in Kogi Central.
However, the electoral body noted that the petition lacked key details, including the contact addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses of the petitioners, as required under its 2024 Recall Guidelines.
In a letter dated Wednesday, March 26, Akpoti-Uduaghan’s lawyer, Victor Giwa, accused INEC of siding with the petitioners by advising them on how to correct their errors instead of dismissing the petition as “incompetent.”
The letter stated, “Your position as disclosed in your press release on March 25, 2025, signed by Sam Olumekun shows that the Commission has taken sides and has become partial in favour of the Petitioners in this case.
“The Commission has observed that the Petitioners’ Petition did not meet the threshold of the requirement of a Petition to recall a member, having not contained the required contact addresses, telephone numbers and email addresses in their covering letter forwarding the Petition as contained in Clause 1(f) of INEC Regulation and Guideline. The proper thing and step to have been taken is to declare the Petition as ‘incompetent’ and subsequently disregard same.”
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She argued that INEC’s role was to declare the petition invalid if it failed to meet legal requirements, not to offer petitioners a chance to amend their submission.
“Lawfully, the Commission is supposed to have declared the Petition as incompetent for being patently defective for the reasons stated above but surprisingly, the Commission, instead of disregarding the Petition for failure to meet the requirements, opted to take the role of an adviser to the Petitioners and so advised the Petitioners that once they provide the needed information that is not contained in the Petition by meeting the requirements, it shall commence the verification of the signatures in each polling unit.
“We posit that the Commission has by this press release shown partisanship and partiality in favour of the Petitioner and has compromised the process.
“The proper step to take by the Commission, if the Commission will maintain its integrity and impartiality, is to declare the Petition as incompetent and defective and notify the Petitioners accordingly. Therefore, putting an end to this process at this stage.”
Akpoti-Uduaghan also questioned the validity of the signatures, pointing out that the addresses provided in the petition were all from Okene, Kogi State, rather than covering the entire senatorial district.
“Secondly, the address disclosed and provided in the petition according to your press release was Okene Kogi State, meaning that the two hundred and fifty signatories as contained in the petition came only from Okene, Kogi State, which seems more probable,” she said.
She urged INEC to uphold due process and rebuild public trust. “We still believe that the Commission will act rightly,” she added.