- Safiu Kehinde
A coalition of Civil Society Organizations (CSO) has charged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to release the Certified True Copy (CTC) of the petition to recall suspended Kogi lawmaker, Sen. Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, as demanded by her.
NPO Reported that Natasha’s constituents had last month filed a petition for her recall following her six months suspension by the Senate over gross misconduct.
The petition was, however, rejected for failing to meet constitutional requirement.
In a joint letter issued on Wednesday and signed by the Executive Director of #FixPolitics Africa, Anthony Ubani, and Executive Director of Women Advocates Research and Documentation Centre, Dr Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi, the CSOs urged INEC to ensure Natasha received the CTC of the first petition before the commission receives a second one.
The CSOs held that the petitioners are currently working towards submitting another petition in their bid to ensure the recall of Natasha.
The statement read in part; “We understand that Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan has requested the CTC of the recall petition your office received against her. Also, following the commission’s announcement that the petition did not meet the threshold, the petitioners are in the process of collecting additional signatures and plan to resubmit the petition.
“We understand that the allegations of forged signatures can only be investigated by the police and the true nature of support for the recall process will only become apparent if the commission goes to the field for verification.”
The CSO which was also joined by the Transition Monitoring Group and Enough is Enough Nigeria, requested the commission to ensure that it followed the letter and spirit of the law by ensuring that the senator received the CTC of the first petition before accepting a fresh one.
According to the organization, findings revealed that Akpoti-Uduaghan had made a formal request for the CTC and paid the necessary fees for it but INEC had not released the CTC to her.