Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says the petition to recall Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan from the Senate has yet to meet constitutional requirement.
The commission stated this in a short notice posted on its X platform.
“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 of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended),” the notice said.
Dateline Nigeria reports that Section 69 said “A member of the Senate or of the House Representatives may be recalled as such a member if –
(a) there is presented to the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission a petition in that behalf signed by more than one-half of the persons registered to vote in that member’s constituency alleging their loss of confidence in that member; and
(b) the petition is thereafter, in a referendum conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission within ninety days of the date of receipt of the petition, approved by a simple majority of the votes of the persons registered to vote in that member’s constituency.
The commission, however, said that details of why the petition had not met the constitutional requirement would be made available shortly.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that a group of registered voters from Akpoti-Uduaghan’s senatorial district had, on March 24, submitted a petition to INEC, urging it to commence her recall process from the senate.
The constituents, in the letter signed by the Lead Petitioner, Salihu Habib, and submitted at INEC headquarters, said they no longer had confidence in Akpoti-Uduaghan as their senator and representative in the National Assembly.
Meanwhile, INEC had, on March 25, confirmed the receipt of the petition, accompanied by six bags of documents said to be signatures collected from more than half of the 474,554 registered voters from the senatorial district.
The commission also said that it had notified the suspended senator about the receipt of the petition to recall her from the national assembly. (NAN)
