Senator Natasha Recall Move: Petitioners Claim 250,000 Signatures Submitted To INEC

She said: “It is concerned Kogi youths and women [that submitted the petition]. Talking about bankrolling, it is a personal business. It is a personal thing. We are members of our constituency, and we don’t want her anymore.

“We are the ones that voted, and we are saying we don’t want her anymore. So, nobody is bankrolling; nobody is having any personal issues with her. It is just what it is.

“We all know the INEC rules. You cannot submit a petition without having to go and get the signatures of registered voters. That is why we are now saying as people, we are recalling her from the Senate because we have gotten what it takes to recall her back.”

She further claimed that the required threshold for a recall had been met.

“We have 488,000 registered voters from Kogi Central and, as I speak to you now, we have more than 250,000 voters who have signed for her (Natasha) recall.”

SaharaReporters earlier reported that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had officially received the petition despite a Federal High Court injunction restraining it from doing so.

The petition was accepted on Monday by INEC Secretary, Rose Oriaran-Anthony.

On March 21, 2025, a Federal High Court in Lokoja ruled in favour of an interim injunction blocking INEC from accepting the recall petition due to allegations of falsified signatures.

The ruling was delivered by Justice Isa H. Dashen in suit number FHC/LKJ/CS/13/2025.

The court order restrained INEC from “receiving, accepting, or acting in any way whatsoever on any purported petitions submitted to the defendant by any person or persons whatsoever, containing fictitious signatures and names of purported members of Kogi Central Senatorial District and conducting any referendum whatsoever upon such petition for the purpose of initiating a recall process.”

The case is scheduled for a hearing on May 6, 2025.

SaharaReporters had also reported how politicians loyal to former Governor Yahaya Bello orchestrated the fraudulent recall process.

Residents have accused them of deceiving voters into signing recall documents under the guise of an empowerment program.

SaharaReporters obtained videos showing unsuspecting residents being tricked into providing their voter details.

“We are not here for the recall process of Natasha. We are here for an empowerment. And we were given instructions to come with our voter cards,” a resident revealed.

Another resident, Mrs. Joseph, condemned the recall process as fraudulent.

“I call the recall process a mess. Nobody was aware of it at all. These people deceived them with the promise of empowerment. It was only when we arrived that many of us realised this was not normal,” she said.

She further alleged that the recall effort lacked public support.

“People started leaving. I see it as a fraud, and they are doing something the people do not support. I myself do not support it, and the majority of people in this local government are against it.”

The controversy surrounding Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan’s recall intensified after she publicly accused Senate President Godswill Akpabio of sexual harassment. Following this, she was controversially suspended from the Senate, a move many believe is politically motivated.