The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has officially concluded the recall process against Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, with the agency’s Director of Voter Education and Publicity confirming that legal provisions for restarting such efforts remain undefined.
In an interview with ARISE NEWS on Friday, INEC’s Victoria Eta-Messi explained that while the commission followed constitutional guidelines throughout the process, current electoral law does not specify whether a failed recall can be reinitiated or what timeframe would be required before submitting a new petition.
“The law is silent on the recall process being started afresh. And we’re not sure, even if that were to happen, we’re not sure of the window that is required before a resubmission can be done,” Eta-Messi stated.
She confirmed that the verification exercise failed to meet the required threshold of 50% plus one of registered voters, with only 208,132 signatures (43.8%) successfully validated.
“What the commission did yesterday was to state that based on what was submitted earlier, the threshold was not met,” she explained. “So as it is, what we have on the ground has been done with. It is a done deal. That process has come to an end in line with the provision of the constitution.”
Regarding potential future attempts, Eta-Messi added, “If they were to start afresh now, well, I don’t know. The experts would advise us on that. But the law is silent on them representing and how soon they should do that, we do not know. But when they come up with another petition, then I think we’ll cross the bridge when we get there.”
Addressing questions about the legitimacy of the petitioning group, Eta-Messi clarified that constitutional requirements focus on constituent participation rather than organizational status.
“The constitution did not say that they must be a registered entity. It just said constituents who have lost confidence in their representative can seek their recall,” she noted. “So these are a group of people who came together. They just chose to give themselves a name. I don’t think we needed to go to the CAC to confirm if there is such a registered body.”
The recall effort was led by a group identifying itself as the Kogi Central Political Frontier, which cited allegations of misconduct and divisiveness against Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan. Despite the outcome, the petitioners expressed satisfaction that INEC validated the majority of their signatures, which they claimed refuted skeptics questioning the petition’s authenticity.
In their public statement, the petitioners criticized recent comments by the senator that they alleged could incite regional tensions. They maintained their position that Akpoti-Uduaghan prioritizes political survival over genuine service to her constituents and reaffirmed their desire for new representation.
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