Petition To Recall Senator Natasha Did Not Meet ‘Requirements,’ Says INEC

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has received the petition to recall Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan but says it did not meet the “requirements” for the action.

INEC’s National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education, Sam Olumekun, said this in a statement on Tuesday.

Olumekun said the petition from Kogi Central Senatorial District was accompanied by six bags of documents which contained signatures 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, the INEC commissioner said the agency noticed some missing pieces in the petition, adding that “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.”

He said, INEC’s “immediate observation” about the petition was “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,” the statement read partly.

The INEC national commissioner reiterated 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”.

“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,” he said.

The push to recall Senator Natasha came just after she was suspended by the Senate for violating its rules. She had accused Senate President Godswill Akpabio of sexual assault.