The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has debunked the claim that it aided petitioners in the recall process initiated against Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan of Kogi Central.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today, Rotimi Oyekanmi, the spokesperson for Yakubu Mahmood, the INEC chairman said the commission did nothing wrong in asking the petitioners to amend their documents.
Recall that Akpoti-Uduaghan during her homecoming /Sallah rally had accused the electoral body of aiding and abetting the petitioners on how to work against her.
Akpoti-Uduaghan had faced a recall process from some individuals who filed a petition to INEC for her recall from the Nigerian Senate.
She also alleged that the process was being sponsored by the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio and the immediate past governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello.
However, reacting to the allegation, Oyekanmi said the petition for Akpoti-Uduaghan’s recall was submitted without an address on the cover letter.
He said, “What happened was, in the covering letter, the representatives of the petitioners did not include their address as required in our regulations and guidelines.
“And what we just did was to ask them to supply that address, it has nothing to do with the petition,” Oyekanmi said.
Further noting that no section of the INEC regulations and guidelines prohibits asking for such an omission to be corrected, no law was broken by the commission.
“And of course, there is nowhere in the law where INEC is asked to reject a petition just because the cover letter did not contain the address.
So there was no hanky-panky in what we did,” he added.
