Court Injunction: You Must Come Back Home – Constituents Tell Natasha
Some constituents of Kogi Central Senatorial District, have insisted that the Court injunction secured by embattled Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan barring the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from receiving the petition for her recall is nothing but buying of time.
The group of constituents said that the earlier Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan realises that her time in the Senate is over, the better for her psyche and peace of mind.
The group on the aegis of ‘Kogi Renaissance Assembly’, in a statement by its Coordinator, Adeku Joshua; and Secretary, Maleek Sule on Friday in Lokoja, warned the embattled Senator Natasha to stop wasting her time by adopting different strategies to delay her return home following the embarrassment she caused the people of the senatorial district.
The group noted that the recent court injunction obtained by Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan stopping INEC from receiving a petition for her recall, was a clear sign that she was as good as gone.
Leaders of the members of the Kogi Renaissance Assembly who said they cut across the five local government areas that make-up the senatorial district, stressed that; “once intentions are not pure, individuals are bound to commit irreversible blunders which is the case of Mrs. Akpoti-Uduaghan”.
The group noted that desperation had pushed Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan into describing the recall signatures as fictitious, stressing that it is not in her place to determine but INEC during its verification exercise.
“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 said the signatures are fictitious.
“We understand her plight. This is last-minute desperation to save herself of the embarrassment of a recall. But we, the constituents of Kogi Central, insist that she has already embarrassed both herself and the district, and home she shall come.
“The courts are for everybody. You can’t force yourself on us. You should know that this your course of action is dead on arrival. We will keenly follow the recall process through in order to redeem our image, the image of the state and that of Nigeria at large.
“We, the 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,” the group said.
A Federal High Court sitting in Lokoja had, on Friday, granted an interim injunction restraining INEC, its staff, or agents from receiving, accepting, or acting on any petition containing what the Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan called “fictitious signatures of purported members of her senatorial district.
The Court presided over by Justice Isa Dashen, issued the injunction after listening to the application moved by Mr Smart Nwachimere of West-Idahosa, SAN & Co, counsel to the applicants.
The applicants, Anebe Jacob Ogirma, John Adebosi, Musa Siyaka Adeiza, Hon. Ahmed Usman, and Maleek Yahaya, had through their counsel, alleged that the ongoing recall process of Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan was a sham.
Nwachimere therefore prayed the court to grant an injunction ordering INEC not to receive any petition containing fictitious signatures of purported members of Kogi Central Senatorial District and conducting any referendum upon such petition for the purpose of initiating a re-call process of Akpoti-Uduaghan as Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria pending the determination of the Motion on Notice to the same effect.
The ex-parte application for the interim injunction, he said, was supported by an Affidavit of Extreme urgency together with other court processes sworn to by Anebe Jacob Ogirima for himself and four others who are registered voters and constituents of Kogi central senatorial district of Kogi.
While granting the Order, Justice Dashen directed the Court’s enrolled order and the motion on notice be served on the defendant/despondent (INEC) pending the determination of the substantive suit and adjourned the case to May 6, for service of notice and further mention.
