The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said the Constitution did not stipulate the duration for re-submitting a petition for a legislator’s recall if the first attempt fails.

INEC’s Director of Voter Education and Publicity, Victoria Eta-Messi, stated that Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan‘s recall petition was canceled because it did not meet the provision of the Constitution.

“The Constitution was silent about the duration for re-submitting a recall petition against a lawmaker,” Eta-Messi said in an interview with Arise News on Friday. She questioned, however, where the group that filed the recall petition against the Kogi Central Senator would obtain signatures to make up the difference in the first petition.

“Therefore, the Constitution is silent on that,” she said. Regarding a new recall procedure, the legislation says nothing. We are also unsure of the window that must pass before a resubmission can be made, even if that were to occur.

The Commission declared yesterday (Thursday) that the threshold was not reached based on the preceding submissions. They needed fifty percent plus one. However, 43.8% was obtained when the signatures were physically inspected.

As it stands, we have used up all we have on the ground. The deal is finalized. Thus, in accordance with the Constitution’s provisions, that process has concluded. Therefore, I’m not sure if they would start again now. I’m not sure; we would get advice from the specialists on it. However, the legislation says nothing about their representation. We don’t know how quickly they should do that either.

However, I believe we’ll deal with the situation when it arises when they submit another petition. The problem, though, is where they will now obtain the remaining funds since they were only able to collect 208,000 signatures. So, that is something to consider.