The Federal High Court, Lokoja, has granted an interim injunction restraining the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, from receiving petitions for the purpose of initiating a recall process against Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan.
Recall that the move to recall the suspended senator heightened on Thursday, with more groups in Kogi Central throwing their weight behind the process.
However, a group of Ebira indigenes dismissed the claim that the recall process was being sponsored and influenced with money by Akpoti-Uduaghan’s political opponents.
In the same vain, the court, which gave the order on Thursday, also restricted INEC staff, agents, privies, or assigns from accepting or acting on any petition containing fictitious signatures of purported members of the Kogi Central Senatorial District and from conducting any referendum pending the determination of the motion on notice to the same effect.
The court, according to the order paper made available to newsmen on Friday morning, granted the application following an ex-parte application for an interim injunction supported by an affidavit of extreme urgency.
The court processes were sworn to by Anebe Jacob Ogirima for himself and four others who are registered voters and constituents of the Kogi Central Senatorial District of Kogi State.
However, the application was moved by Smart Nwachimere, Esq., of West-Idahosa, SAN & Co., but the case has been adjourned to May 6, 2025, for a report of service and further mention.
Reacting to the development, a pressure group, Action Collective, lauded the judiciary for granting the order.
In his reaction, the group’s coordinator, Dr. Onimisi Ibrahim, stated that the order would further expose the impunity of some sponsored individuals behind the failed plot to recall Senator Natasha.
