Adeyemi Adebanjo
THE Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Wednesday said it is now ready to go ahead with Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan’s recall process after receiving complete contact details from representatives of the petitioners.
Eighteen-Eleven Media reports that the Commission had on Tuesday said the petition seeking to recall the senator representing Kogi Central Senatorial District in the National Assembly failed to comply with Clause 1(f) of the Regulations and Guidelines for Recall 2024 regarding the submission of a petition.
Rising from its regular weekly meeting held today, Tuesday 25th March 2025, the election body, in a statement signed by Sam Olumekun, National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, said the petition from Kogi Central Senatorial District was accompanied by 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
The Commission said its immediate observation 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 could be contacted as provided in Clause 1(f) of INEC Regulations and Guidelines.
The Commission insists that 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 Commission wishes to reiterate 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.
“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).
“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.
“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.”
However, in an update less than twenty hours after its initial position on the issue, INEC acknowledged receiving a letter containing the contact addresses, telephone numbers, and email addresses of the petitioners’ representatives.
According to INEC, the next step is to scrutinise the list of 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.
According to INEC in the notification also signed by Sam Olumekun, the next step is to scrutinise the list of 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.
The notification read as follows:
UPDATE ON THE RECALL OF THE SENATOR REPRESENTING KOGI CENTRAL SENATORIAL DISTRICT
Further to the statement issued yesterday, Tuesday 25th March 2025, the Commission hereby confirms that the contact address of representatives of the petitioners, their telephone numbers and e-mail addresses have now been provided in a letter addressed to the Chairman of the Commission dated today Wednesday 26th March 2025.
As provided in Clause 2(a) of the Commission’s Regulations and Guidelines for Recall 2024, a letter has been written to notify the Senator sought to be recalled about the receipt of the petition and delivered to her official address. The same letter has been copied to the presiding officer of the Senate and published on the Commission’s website.
The next step is to scrutinise the list of 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.
Sam Olumekun mni
National Commissioner and Chairman, Information & Voter Education Committee
Wednesday 26th March 2025
Eighteen-Eleven Media