How Natasha’s petitioners failed to collect telephone numbers, emails, others – INEC

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has acknowledged receiving a petition to recall Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, but it has declared that the petition does not meet the necessary requirements for further action.

INEC’s National Commissioner and Chairman of Information and Voter Education, Sam Olumekun, confirmed this in a statement on Tuesday.

According to Olumekun, the petition  submitted by representatives from Kogi Central Senatorial District was accompanied by six bags of documents containing signatures from more than half of the 474,554 registered voters across 902 polling units in the district’s five local government areas: Adavi, Ajaokuta, Ogori/Magongo, Okehi, and Okene.

However, INEC identified key deficiencies in the petition, particularly the lack of essential contact details for the petitioners.

“Our immediate observation is that the representatives of the petitioners did not provide their contact address, telephone number(s), and e-mail address(es) in the covering letter forwarding the petition, which is a requirement under Clause 1(f) of our Regulations and Guidelines,” Olumekun stated.

He further noted that the only address provided was “Okene, Kogi State,” which is not a specific location for official correspondence.

Additionally, the petition included the phone number of only the lead petitioner instead of all the representatives, as required by INEC’s guidelines.

INEC has called on the petitioners to rectify these procedural issues before the recall process can proceed.