The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says petitioners for the recall of the suspended Senator representing Kogi Central, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, have submitted their contact address, telephone numbers and e-mail addresses.

INEC’s National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Sam Olumekun, confirmed this in a statement in Abuja on Wednesday evening,

On Tuesday, March 25, 2025, the electoral umpire had said the petitioners failed to provide the necessary contact information as required under the Commission’s Regulations and Guidelines for Recall 2024.

However, Olumekun said the petitioners provided their contact information on Wednesday, March 26.

“Further to the statement issued yesterday, Tuesday 25th March 2025, the commission hereby confirms that the contact address of representatives of the petitioners, their telephone numbers and e-mail addresses have now been provided in a letter addressed to the Chairman of the commission dated today Wednesday 26th March 2025.

“As provided in Clause 2(a) of the Commission’s Regulations and Guidelines for Recall 2024, a letter has been written to notify the Senator sought to be recalled about the receipt of the petition and delivered to her official address. The same letter has been copied to the presiding officer of the Senate and published on the commission’s website,” Olumekun said.

He said: “The next step is to scrutinise the list of signatories submitted by the petitioners to ascertain that the petition is signed by more than one half (over 50%) of the registered voters in the Constituency.

“This will be done in the coming days. The outcome, which will be made public, shall determine the next step to be taken by the Commission.”

The INEC official also reassured Nigerians that the process will be open and transparent.

This is coming after the embattled lawmaker criticised INEC for not outrightly rejecting the petition seeking her recall, describing the commission’s response as an indication of bias.

Akpoti-Uduaghan, through her lawyer, Victor Giwa, in a letter dated March 26, accused INEC of compromising its neutrality by offering guidance to the petitioners instead of declaring the petition incompetent due to its procedural flaws.

She said the proper step INEC should have taken to show it was unbiased in the matter was to declare the petition defective, which would have brought an end to the process.