Efforts by some powerful politicians and constituents of Kogi Central Senator, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, to have her recalled from the Senate has fallen flat on its face.
The Independent National Electoral Commission,( INEC) declared the petition to recall her inadequate.
On its 𝕏 handle on Thursday, April 3, 2025, the electoral umpire wrote: “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 commission, however, said that details of why the petition had not met the constitutional requirement would be made available shortly.
A group of registered voters from Kogi Central senatorial district on March 24, submitted a petition to INEC, urging it to commence her recall process from the senate.
A former governor of the State and the sitting governor were accused by the suspended senator of working with the embattled Senate head to have her removed from the Upper Legislative chamber because she accused him of sexual harassment.
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.
Though less than 160,000 voters made Natasha win her hotly contested seat, 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.
Recall that shortly after her suspension from the Senate, based on the recommendations of the Senate Ethics Committee, Natasha accused Senate President Godswill Akpabio of sexual harassment, even going as far as the Inter-parliamentary Union to push her case against him.
