Recall: You Are Biased, Made Yourself An Adviser To Petitioners – Senator Natasha Blasts INEC

The embattled Kogi Central lawmaker, Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, has accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of partiality in handling the recall process against her.

Senator Natasha made the allegation in a letter dated March 26, 2025, released through her lawyer, Victor Giwa.

Naijaonpoint recalls that INEC had on Tuesday, noted that the petition to recall Senator Natasha by some members of her constituency was defective as it failed to include essential details such as the contact addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses of the petitioners, as required under the Commission’s Regulations and Guidelines for Recall 2024.

The INEC National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Sam Olumekun, who made this known after a meeting of the electoral umpire, added that the commission would proceed with the process once the petitioners have made the necessary corrections.

However, Natasha has queried the step taken by INEC, arguing that the commission should have outrightly rejected the petition for failing to meet the requirements.

She also chided INEC for providing guidance to the petitioners on how to effect necessary corrections, submitting that it is a sign that INEC is not neutral and is partisan.

The letter partly reads, “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.

“The Commission has observed that the Petitioners’ Petition did not meet the threshold of the requirement of a Petition to recall a member, having not contained the required contact addresses, telephone numbers and email addresses in their covering letter forwarding the Petition as contained in Clause 1(f) of INEC Regulation and Guideline. The proper thing and step to have been taken is to declare the Petition as “incompetent” and subsequently disregard same.

“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 and so advised the Petitioners that once they provide the needed information that is not contained in the Petition by meeting the requirements, it shall commence the verification of the signatures in each polling units.

“We posit that the Commission has by this press release shown partisanship and partiality in favour of the Petitioner and has compromised the process.

“The proper step to take by the Commission, if the Commission will maintain its integrity and impartiality, is to declare the Petition as incompetent and defective and notify the Petitioners accordingly. Therefore, putting an end to this process at this stage.”

She insisted that the decision by INEC to allow the petitioners to correct their errors is a breach of due process and the normal thing would have been to dismiss the petition in its entirety.

Senator Natasha, therefore, urged the commission to “do the needful and rebuild the public trust that is fast declining,” adding that “we still believe that the Commission will act rightly.”

“Secondly, 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 added.