The Senator representing Kogi Central, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, has accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of bias for failing to outrightly reject a petition seeking her recall. She criticized the commission’s response, arguing that its handling of the matter compromises its neutrality.
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INEC, in a statement signed by its National Commissioner and Chairman of Information and Voter Education Committee, Sam Olumekun, confirmed receiving the petition, which reportedly contains signatures from over half of the 474,554 registered voters in the senatorial district. However, the commission pointed out that the petition lacked essential details such as the contact addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses of the petitioners, which are required under the 2024 INEC Regulations and Guidelines for Recall.
In reaction, Akpoti-Uduaghan, through her lawyer, Victor Giwa, in a letter dated March 26, accused INEC of taking sides in the matter by guiding the petitioners instead of dismissing the petition outright due to its procedural flaws.
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 favor of the Petitioners in this case.”
She argued that the petition, having failed to meet the basic requirements, should have been declared incompetent and disregarded by INEC.
“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.”
Akpoti-Uduaghan maintained that INEC’s duty was to assess the petition’s compliance with electoral laws and not to provide advisory roles to petitioners on how to rectify their errors.
“Lawfully, the Commission is supposed to have declared the Petition as incompetent for being patently defective for the reasons stated above. But surprisingly, instead of disregarding the Petition for failure to meet the requirements, the Commission opted to take the role of an adviser to the Petitioners.”
She further alleged that INEC’s press release suggested it was willing to proceed with the verification of signatures once the missing details were supplied by the petitioners.
“We posit that the Commission has, by this press release, shown partisanship and partiality in favor of the Petitioners and has compromised the process.”
The senator also questioned the legitimacy of the petition’s signatures, noting that the addresses provided in the petition were limited to Okene, Kogi State, rather than 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, which seems more probable.”
She argued that this raised serious doubts about the claim that more than half of the district’s registered voters supported the recall.
Akpoti-Uduaghan insisted that INEC’s decision to allow the petitioners to correct their errors, rather than declaring the petition invalid, was a breach of due process.
“The proper step to take by the Commission, if it will maintain its integrity and impartiality, is to declare the Petition as incompetent and defective and notify the Petitioners accordingly, thereby putting an end to this process at this stage.”
She urged INEC to “do the needful” and restore public trust in the electoral process.
“We still believe that the Commission will act rightly.”
The controversy surrounding the recall petition has heightened political tensions in Kogi Central. Supporters of Akpoti-Uduaghan view the move as politically motivated, while others await INEC’s final decision.
Meanwhile, INEC has yet to respond to the senator’s demand for an outright dismissal of the petition.
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