To recall Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan is costlier than normal election, says electoral commission

The recalled process of the suspended Kogi State Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan maybe herculean task for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), as the body disclosed that it is more expensive to conduct a recall election than a constituency election.

Penpushing reports that indication to this task was made known by Special Adviser to the commission Chairman, Mohammed Kunna during an online discussion on “INEC Regulation and Guidelines for Recall 2024.”

The discussion also covered BVAS and IREV: Facts and Myths, while Mohammed in a statement emphasized and explained that conducting a recall election was similar to conducting three constituency elections.

“Once a petition is received and verified to meet legal requirements, INEC must first conduct a verification exercise at the affected polling units. For that verification to happen, we have to use the Bi-Modal Voter Verification System (BVAS) because those who signed the petition must be verified as genuine registered voters in those units’, he said.

“Then, INEC needs to establish 50 per cent plus one signature from the constituency. After that, we proceed to the final stage: conducting the referendum, which involves a yes or no vote by registered voters in the constituency’, Kunna added.

Penpushing further reports that he added that this process involved mobilising staff, deploying election materials, transportation, and other resources, much like conducting three senatorial district elections.

The Special Adviser to the commission chairman, explained that in his own opinion emphasized that the recall process is much more expensive than conducting a single senatorial district election.

Penpushing also reports that the Chief Press Secretary to Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman, Rotimi Oyekanmi, acknowledged the high cost but emphasised that commission must adhere to the law.

The spokesperson stated that what is important is what the law says the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) should do in each case if constituents wish to recall their representatives.

Penpushing reports that Oyekanmi earlier explained that National Electoral Commission (INEC’s) regulations and the Electoral Act specified the process for conducting a recall election.

“The law allows a recall election only if the petitioners meet constitutional requirements, including submitting signatures from at least half of the registered voters in the constituency’, he said.

“Once the petition is received, INEC performs a preliminary check and then verifies the signatures. The lawmaker facing recall is informed and has the right to deploy agents to observe the process. Observers and media personnel can also participate in the verification and referendum’, Oyekanmi added.

Penpushing further reports that the Chief Press Secretary to Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman also addressed the possibility of online voting, stating that the Constitution did not permit commission to conduct electronic voting.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had announced that it had begun the process of verifying the over 200,000 signatures on the petition to recall Akpoti-Uduaghan, while the persons who submitted the petition claimed that all the signatories existed and were voters in  Akpoti-Uduaghan’s constituency.

Penpushing also reports that contrary to the claim the suspended senator and many observers have, however, raised concerns that many of the signatures were fake and that Akpoti-Uduaghan, enjoys the support of the majority of her over 400,000 constituents.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), by law, will now have to conduct the verification process of the signatories as part of the recall process, while record has it that Akpoti-Uduaghan’s ordeal began when she challenged the sitting arrangement for senators put in place by Senate President Godswill Akpabio.

Penpushing reports that following mode of her challenge of what was by Senate rules the role of the senate president put her in conflict with the majority of her colleagues in the Senate and the Senate committee on ethics recommended her suspension for it.

The embattled Senator on the day she was to be suspended, on the floor of the Senate, raised an allegation of sexual harassment against the Senate President an allegation he has since denied.

Penpushing further reports that barely few minutes of allegation raised the Senate adopted the earlier resolution of its ethics committee and suspended her for six months and equally barred from entering the Senate building during the suspension and her salaries and allowances were stopped for the period of the suspension.

The six-month suspension was issued despite previous court rulings that a lawmaker cannot be suspended for more than two weeks, and amidst the controversy, some residents of Akpoti-Uduaghan’s constituency announced that they would recall her.

Penpushing also reports that Akpoti-Uduaghan is believe to enjoy the support of the majority of the residents of her constituency, while record equally has it that no recall of a lawmaker has been successful in Nigeria’s history.

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