Constituents of Kogi Central Senatorial District have dismissed the recent court injunction obtained by Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, which restrains the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from receiving a recall petition, as a sign of her “realization that she is as good as gone.”
According to the constituents, representing all five local government areas within the district, the Senator’s actions reflect a pattern of “irreversible blunders” stemming from “impure intentions,” particularly evident in the wording of her court injunction statement.
In a statement released on Friday by the Kogi Central Renaissance Assembly (KCRA), the constituents argued that Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan’s desperation led her to prematurely label the recall signatures as “fictitious,” a determination they believe should have been left to INEC during its verification process.
“It is laughable that the same person who has called the recall process a sham is the same person that has gone to tell the court to restrain the electoral umpire from receiving or acting on the petition, even when she says the signatures are fictitious,” the KCRA statement read.
The constituents asserted that the Senator’s attempt to preemptively halt the recall process through legal means was a “last-minute desperation” to avoid “embarrassment.” They insisted that the recall would proceed, emphasizing that “you have already embarrassed both yourself and the District, and home you shall come.”
“The courts are for everybody. You can’t force yourself on us. Even you should know that this your course of action is dead on arrival,” the statement, signed by KCRA Coordinator Adeku Joshua and Secretary Maleek Sule, declared.
They vowed to pursue the recall to completion, aiming to “redeem their image, the image of Kogi State and that of Nigeria at large.” “We, Ebiras, are not enablers of blackmail and unruly behaviour. We stand by this recall and will see it through. The world should know that we are people of integrity. Enough of embarrassing the entire country on the world stage over ridiculous allegations backed by no evidence,” they stated.
Reports indicate that a Federal High Court in Lokoja had granted an interim injunction on Friday, restraining INEC from receiving or acting on any petition containing what Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan termed “fictitious signatures of purported members of the Kogi Central Senatorial District.”
