•Suspended Senator Natasha
Going by the provisions of Section 69 of the 1999 Constitution as amended and guidelines of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, those seeking to recall Kogi Central lawmaker, Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, from the Senate have 10 hurdles to scale.
Currently, the opponents of the lawmaker have surmounted six of the hurdles and have four more to scale to realise their quest, reports Saturday Vanguard.
Sections 69, 110, and 160 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended), along with Sections 2(c) and 113 of the Electoral Act, 2022, empower INEC to issue regulations and guidelines governing the recall of a member of the National Assembly, a State House of Assembly, or an Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory.
10 tortuous steps
Section 69 of the 1999 Constitution provides 10 clear but tortuous steps on how a senator can be recalled from the Senate.
The steps are:
1 Petition
More than half of the registered voters in the Senator’s senatorial district write, sign and send a petition to the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC alleging their loss of confidence in the senatorial district senator
2 Signing of petition
The petition must be signed, and arranged according to polling units, wards, Local Government Areas, and constituency.
3 INEC notifies senator
INEC notifies the Senator sought to be recalled, stating that it has received a petition for his or her recall, if the petition is valid
4 Signatures verification date
INEC issues a public notice or announcement stating the date, time and location of the verification of signatures to the petition
5 Signatures verification
INEC verifies the signatures to the petition at the designation. The signatories must be individuals who appear on the voters’ register.
6 No referendum
INEC writes to the petitioners stating that the minimum requirements for a referendum were not met, if the number verified is less than one half of the registered voters in that constituency. The petition will therefore be dismissed.
7 Referendum
INEC fixes date for a referendum if more than one half (50% + 1) of the signatories are verified
8 Referendum within three months
INEC conducts a referendum within 90 days of receipt of the petition if the minimum requirements for a referendum are met. The referendum will be a simple yes or no vote on whether the Senator should be recalled, and will be decided by a simple majority of the votes of the persons registered to vote in that Senator’s constituency.
The conduct of a referendum introduces a major hurdle in the process as 50 per cent of registered voters must participate in a referendum. In the case of Kogi Central, 237, 277 voters constituting half of the 474,554 registered voters are needed. In the 2023 general elections, for instance, voter turnout was only around 27 per cent. In Kogi Central all the 12 candidates scored 106,491 votes of which Natasha had 51,763 votes.
Although not up to 50 per cent of registered voters elect their legislators, a high threshold is required to recall them as may apply in Natasha’s case.
9 Validity of recall
If the majority of the voters in the constituency vote ‘yes’ the Chairman of the INEC will send a Certificate of Recall to the Senate President to effect the recall.
10 Recall of senator
The Senate President will show the affected senator the way out of the Senate.
