THE Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said it had notified the senator representing Kogi Central, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, of a recall petition initiated by registered voters in her district.
The notification, dated March 26, was issued by the INEC’s Secretary, Rose Oriaran Anthony.
In the letter addressed to the senator and copied to the presiding officer of the Senate, INEC confirmed receiving a petition from her constituents seeking her recall from the National Assembly.
Pursuant to Section 69 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended), I write to notify you of the receipt of a petition from representatives of registered voters in your constituency seeking your recall from the Senate.
“This notification is in line with the provision of Clause 2(a) of the Commission’s Regulations and Guidelines for Recall, 2024. This letter is also copied to the presiding officer of the Senate and simultaneously published on the Commission’s website,” the letter read.
This was as the commission, in another letter, confirmed that it had received a letter providing the contact details of the petitioners’ representatives.
The statement, released by the National Commissioner and Chairman of INEC’s Information and Voter Education Committee, Sam Olumekun, on Wednesday, March 26, stated that the next stage involved verifying the signatures submitted by the petitioners to ascertain that the recall request was endorsed by more than half (over 50 per cent) of the registered voters in Kogi Central Senatorial District.
Recall that the commission, while acknowledging the receipt of the petition, which it said was accompanied by six bags of documents purportedly containing the signatures of over half of the district’s 474,554 registered voters, stated that there was an omission of contact address and phone numbers of the petitioners’ representatives.
The INEC deemed the only address provided by the petitioners, “Okene, Kogi State”, too vague for official correspondence.
No Lawmaker Has Been Successfully Recalled In The Past
No lawmaker in Nigeria’s National Assembly has ever been successfully recalled. While the recall process is constitutionally provided for under Section 69 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), it is widely regarded as cumbersome and nearly impossible to achieve due to stringent requirements. For instance, more than half of the registered voters in a constituency must sign a petition, and this threshold has proven unattainable in previous attempts.
The most notable example was the failed recall of Senator Dino Melaye in 2018, where only 5.34% of signatures were verified instead of the required 50.1%. Other recall petitions, such as those against Hon. Aminu Sani Jaji and other lawmakers, have been initiated but have not progressed successfully due to similar challenges.