Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, representing Kogi Central, has accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of bias in its handling of a petition seeking her recall.
The petition, which reportedly contains signatures from over half of the 474,554 registered voters in the senatorial district, was submitted to INEC on Monday.
However, INEC noted that the petition lacked essential details, such as contact addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses of the petitioners, as required by the Commission’s Regulations and Guidelines for Recall 2024.
Instead of dismissing the petition, INEC offered guidance to the petitioners on how to correct their errors.
Akpoti-Uduaghan’s lawyer, Victor Giwa, responded with a letter accusing INEC of compromising its neutrality and showing partisanship in favor of the petitioners.
The senator argued that INEC should have declared the petition incompetent due to its procedural flaws, rather than allowing the petitioners to correct their errors.
Furthermore, Akpoti-Uduaghan pointed out that the addresses provided in the petition were limited to Okene, Kogi State, suggesting that the alleged signatures did not represent the entire senatorial district.
She urged INEC to “do the needful and rebuild the public trust that is fast declining”.
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