ABUJA, Nigeria – Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, representing Kogi Central, has strongly criticized the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for not outrightly rejecting the petition seeking her recall, accusing the commission of bias.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, March 25, 2025, INEC confirmed the receipt of the petition, which reportedly contains signatures from over half of the 474,554 registered voters in her senatorial district.
However, INEC highlighted that the petition lacked crucial contact details, including phone numbers, email addresses, and physical addresses of the petitioners, as required under the Commission’s Regulations and Guidelines for Recall 2024.
Despite the petition’s procedural flaws, INEC did not reject it outright.
Instead, the electoral body stated that it would allow the petitioners to provide the missing information and proceed with the verification process once the requirements are met.
In response, Akpoti-Uduaghan, through her lawyer, Victor Giwa, issued a letter dated March 26, accusing INEC of compromising its neutrality.
She argued that instead of declaring the petition “incompetent” due to its deficiencies, the commission had taken a partisan approach by advising the petitioners on how to rectify the issues.
The letter read in part: “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 favour of the Petitioners in this case.”
Akpoti-Uduaghan argued that INEC should have declared the petition “incompetent” due to its failure to meet the necessary requirements and brought the process to an end.
She further stated, “Lawfully, the Commission is supposed to have declared the Petition as incompetent for being patently defective for the reasons stated above, but surprisingly, the Commission, instead of disregarding the Petition for failure to meet the requirements, opted to take the role of an adviser to the Petitioners.”
The senator also pointed out that the contact details provided in the petition were limited to Okene, Kogi State, suggesting that the signatures did not represent the entire senatorial district.
“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, Kogi State, which seems more probable,” she said.
Akpoti-Uduaghan insisted that INEC’s decision to allow the petitioners to correct their errors, rather than dismiss the petition outright, amounted to a breach of due process.
She urged the commission to take the necessary steps to restore public trust, which she claimed was declining due to its handling of the matter.
“We still believe that the Commission will act rightly,” she concluded.
