There are rules to it before any petition to recall a serving parliament house representative can be considered for an Independent National Electoral Commission (Inec) forward action, and apparently those calling for Kogi Central Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan to be removed from her role haven’t met the set standard, which means they either refocus their application or essentially give the bid up.

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Before that, here is looking at what over half of the 474,554 registered voters spread across 902 Polling Units in 57 Registration Areas (Wards) in the five Local Government Areas of Adavi, Ajaokuta, Ogori/Magongo, Okehi and Okene, evidently missed as they try to get the appellee removed.

A statement from Sam Olumekun, INEC’s national commissioner and also the chairman of the electoral body’s Information and Voter Education Committee, came out on Tuesday, 25 March 2025, to give clarity. It was answering why the move to initiate a recall process targeting Akpoti-Uduaghan had failed.

Ever since the 47-year-old Senator accused the Upper House’s President, Godswill Akpabio, of sexual harassment live on-air, it automatically kickstarted a chain of reactions ultimately turning her out to become a pariah, but now she has escaped the latest attempt to take the wind out of her sails.

After the electoral commission’s regular weekly meeting yesterday, a decision was reached centering around the recall of the Senator, according to the press release.

The voter education committee chairman Olumekun in his statement further sought to emphasise that the process of recall is enshrined in the 1999 Constitution, the Electoral Act 2022 as well as the Commission’s detailed Regulations and Guidelines for Recall 2024, details that can be found on its website. He said that all petitions will be treated in strict compliance with the legal framework.

Inexperienced pitch

Before deciding that the petition to recall Akpoti-Uduaghan will not stand, six bags of documents containing signatures gathered from the five local governments in Kogi Central Senatorial District were reviewed but INEC has insisted that they do not meet with the standards.

The Commission’s 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 through which they can be contacted as provided in Clause 1(f) of our Regulations and Guidelines.

Also, there was a concern about the petitioners and their representatives being unreachable according to their location. The address given is “Okene, Kogi State”, which is not a definite location for contacting the petitioners, says the national commissioner.

He adds that only the telephone number of “the lead petitioner” is provided as against the numbers of all the other representatives of the petitioners, another unmissable irregularity.

If the petitioners were to immediately address the faults noted by the electoral commission’s regular weekly meeting on Tuesday, then the process will progress to the next steps involving the verification of the signatures in each Polling Unit in an open process restricted to registered voters that signed the petition only.

Both sides, that is, the petitioners and the member whose recall is sought shall be at liberty to nominate agents to observe the verification, while interested observers and the media will also be accredited for on-field reporting.

Further damaging the case of the recall is a video that has gone viral, which shows mass signing of signatures rather than individual voters in the senatorial district appending their signatures to indicate they are in support of the process.

Standing rules vs Nigeria’s constitution

Chances are that all these might not happen anytime soon based on outcomes at a Senate Committee on Ethics, Code of Conduct, and Public Petitions’ hearing yesterday that was meant to consider a sexual harassment petition against Senate President Godswill Akpabio lying before it.

The petitioner representing the suspended Kogi Central female lawmaker was Mr. Zuberu Yakubu.

At the hearing, Mr. Yakubu who had the former Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesili in his company for support, reportedly accused the committee of bias and lack of fairness after the members said they cannot deliberate on any matter that a Nigerian court is already reviewing.

It appears a rule contained in the Senate’s standing order, but at the same time critics point out that a set of Red Chamber regulations is being made to impede on the constitution.

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The Nigerian Senate is treating its own rules as superior to the Constitution. This is dangerous for our democracy. The same thing happened when they suspended Senator Natasha, says 61-year-old Ezekwesili at a heated hearing on Tuesday.

According to the former minister advising the Senators who presided, particularly the ethics committee members, the petitioner is simply asking for a fair hearing. The Senate should form a neutral committee to handle this matter so justice can be served.

Meiza Nigeria