The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has been urged to begin the process of recalling and declaring vacant Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan’s seat in the Nigerian Senate.
A viral document show that 250 thousand out of 480 thousand registered voters from Kogi Central Senatorial District, Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan`s area, had in a petition to the INEC Chairman, Mahmod Yakubu, accused the lawmaker of actions inimical to the interests of her people.
The petition dated 21 March 2025, also alleged loss of confidence in her.
According to the document, a copy of which was cited by lapalabras, her constituents also accused her of “gross misconduct, abuse of office, evasion of due process and a pattern of deceitful behaviour that has not only embarrassed the people of Kogi Central constituency but has also tarnished the integrity of the Nigerian Senate and our nation`s democratic institutions.”
Recall, the Senate had earlier in March suspended the PDP Senator for six months, for what the House termed “misconduct and behaviour unbecoming of a Senator.”
In protest, she followed up her suspension by appearing at an Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) meeting in New York, where she re-emphasised her accusation of sexual harassment against the President of the Nigerian Senate, Godswill Akpabio, who she also alleged was manipulating the system to silence her.
Meanwhile, in the petition made public by INEC on Monday, her constituents, relying on Section 69 of the 1999 Constitution, as well as INEC`s regulations and guidelines on recall petitions, urged the electoral umpire to immediately commence the recall process to “remove her from the Senate and declare her seat vacant.”
Natasha became a member of the Red Chamber of the 10th Assembly after the Court of Appeal in Abuja declared her winner of the February 25, 2023 Senatorial elections in Kogi Central.
She went on to head the Senate Committee on Local Content, and as Vice Chairman, Committee on Steel, before she was reassigned to the committee on Diaspora and NGO.
