Natasha's petition does not meet requirements - INEC.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has confirmed receiving a petition which seeks the recall of Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, the senate representative of Kogi central, to office.
However, it noted that the petition which she submitted, does not meet the requirements for submission.
INEC issued this statement through Sam Olumekun, the INEC National Commissioner and Chairman of Information and Voter Educatio. The commissioner in his statement, shortlisted the key issues in the petition. He enumerated them as follows; lack of complete contact details of the petitioners. According to INEC regulations, the petition must include full addresses, telephone numbers, and email contacts of all representatives.
With regards to the above guideline, he noted that the petition only provided a general location, “Okene, Kogi State,” and a single phone number belonging to the lead petitioner.
He also noted that the petition was submitted with six bags of documents, which contained signatures from over half of the 474,554 registered voters in the senatorial district. These signatures were gathered from 902 polling units across 57 registration areas in Adavi, Ajaokuta, Ogori/Magongo, Okehi, and Okene local government areas.
INEC also noted that a recall process is the legal right of voters who have lost confidence in their elected representative. The commission added that it would proceed with the verification of the submitted signatures with the help of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), if only the petition meets all the legal requirements.
INEC further expressed that efforts are made to notify the petitioners and also ensure that the follows the necessary guidelines. It also reaffirmed that the recall process will follow the legal procedures and also urged people to disregard the misinformation and rumours circulating on social media.
The petition was submitted to Rose Oriaran-Anthony, INEC’s Secretary. Also, constituents behind the petition claims to have secured the required number of signatures—over 200,000 registered voters
