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Embattled Senator, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, has faulted the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for not rejecting a petition to recall her as the lawmaker representing Kogi Central Senatorial District earlier.
However, the Kogi lawmaker applauded the electoral commission for eventually deciding to reject the petition because it did not meet the constitutional threshold.
On Thursday, April 3, 2025, INEC declared that the petition filed by a political group from Natasha's district failed to satisfy the provisions of Section 69(a) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
“The petition for the recall of the Senator representing the Kogi Central Senatorial District has not met the requirement of Section 69(a) of the Constitution,” the commission said in a statement.
INEC further explained that a recall petition must be signed by more than half of the registered voters in the affected constituency.
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“The total number of registered voters in the Kogi Central Senatorial District is 474,554. More than one-half of this figure (i.e., 237,278 voters) is required,” it added.
Senator Natasha faults INEC
Meanwhile, the Senator contested that the electoral umpire should have thrown out the petition long before it did on Thursday.
She argued that INEC should have dismissed the petition after the petitioners initially failed to provide an address, claiming that even the addresses provided in the petition for her recall were false because most houses in her district weren’t labelled.
She made this known on Thursday when she spoke on Channels Television’s 'Politics Today.'
“I’m a lawyer. I’m a senator and I understand how Nigeria works. For me, the most important thing is that this recall process has been stalled.
“I give kudos and credit to INEC even though I believe they should have thrown it away from the get-go.
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“I think it was void ab initio because there is no law in the Electoral Act that says a petition should be discarded just because there is no address but again, what if the address is false?”
Akpoti-Uduaghan also boasted that the petitioners would not have succeeded in recalling her because her constituents were solidly behind her.
“Even though INEC did count 208,000 signatures, I bet you if they had gone into the verification stage, they would have struggled to even have 500 people come out to attest to signing that,” she added.