Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan on Thursday applauded the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for rejecting a petition to recall her as the lawmaker representing Kogi Central Senatorial District.
The female lawmaker, who was a guest on Channels Television’s Politics Today, said the electoral umpire should have thrown out the petition long before it did on April 3, 2025.
“I’m a lawyer. I’m a senator and I understand how Nigeria works. For me, the most important thing is this recall process has been stalled.
“I give kudos and credit to INEC even though I believe they should have thrown it away from the get-go.
“I think it was void ab initio because there is no law in the Electoral Act that says a petition should be discarded just because there is no address but again, what if the address is false?”
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain argued that most of the addresses provided in the petition for her recall were false because most houses in her district weren’t labelled.
“Even though INEC did count 208,000 signatures, I bet you if they had gone into the verification stage, they would have struggled to even have 500 people come out to attest to signing that,” she added.
She accused Senate President Godswill Akpabio, Governor Usman Ododo and ex-governor Yahaya Bello of sponsoring her failed recall.
In a much-awaited statement on Thursday, INEC said the petition for the recall of the lawmaker did not meet the requirement of Section 69(a) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended).
“Therefore, no further action shall be taken on the recall of the Senator,” INEC declared.
A spokesman for INEC, Rotimi Oyekanmi, who was also on Channels Television’s Politics Today show insisted that the petition did not meet the recall process.
Oyekanmi said INEC acted professionally and was not partisan in the whole episode.
Earlier, Akpoti-Uduaghan’s lawyer, Victor Giwa, accused the Kogi State Government of sponsoring the recall of the suspended female lawmaker. He had said the state government, through Charity Omole, one of the aides of Ododo, championed the recall of Akpoti-Uduaghan.
On Monday, March 24, 2025, Ododo’s aide, Omole, led some constituents from Kogi Central to submit a petition to INEC for the recall of Akpoti-Uduaghan.
The female federal lawmaker was involved in a seat arrangement dispute with Senate President Godswill Akpabio. The lawmaker also accused Akpabio of sexual harassment and abuse of office. The Senate subsequently suspended her for six months for misconduct.
