TEASER: Akpabio’s pyric victory over Natasha

Akpabio’s pyric victory over Natasha

By Willy Eya

It is no more news that the Senate has suspended Barrister Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan representing Kogi Central in the Red chamber. The upper legislative chamber brought down the gavel on the vocal senator for subjecting the revered institution to public opprobrium.

Akpoti-Uduaghan’s sins started on February 20, 2025, when she rejected her assigned seat in the Red chamber and challenged the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio’s order to move elsewhere.

She later alleged that her troubles in the upper legislative chamber began after she rejected Akpabio’s sexual advances.

The vocal senator thereafter accused the Senate president of harassment and slammed a N100bn alleged defamation suit against him.

The Kogi Central Senator went further to petition the Senate alleging sexual harassment and abuse of office against the Senate President.

But the Senate president denied it saying, “At no time did I ever harass any woman. I was raised very well by my late single mother, and I have always upheld respect for women. I was even awarded the most gender-friendly governor in Nigeria.”

The Senate Committee on Ethics, Code of Conduct, and Public Petitions dismissed Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan’s sexual harassment and abuse of office petition against the Senate President, declaring it “dead on arrival”.

The committee had cited procedural violations and legal constraints as reasons for dismissing the petition.

The Chairman of the Committee, Senator Neda Imasuen, cited Order 40 of the Senate Standing Orders, explaining that Akpoti-Uduaghan signed the petition herself rather than having it endorsed by another individual, thereby rendering it procedurally invalid.

Additionally, he noted that the matters raised in the petition were already before the court, making them sub judice and beyond the Senate’s jurisdiction.

But the issue has continued to generate controversy in Nigeria with many calling for an independent investigation into the allegation.

One of Akpabio’s predecessors as Senate president, Bukola Saraki, in a social media post said the issues raised were too serious to be simply brushed aside.

But the development which is the trending talking point in Nigeria today has created a divide among public commentators.

For some observers, the Senate did the right thing by asserting its authority to reign in the irrepressible Kogi Central senator. In the estimation of those who hold that opinion, it would serve as a deterrence to other senators who may want to stand up to the leadership of the Red chamber. So, among observers in this school of thought, the suspension of Akpoti-Uduaghan was right and a major victory for the Akpabio-led Senate.

However, many commentators believe that the development was a pyric victory for the Senate especially its leader, Godswill Akpabio. This is because perception, they say is reality and in the court of public opinion, the Senate president has lost the battle with Akpoti-Uduaghan. Not a few argue that if it were in ‘saner climes’, the honourable thing for the former Akwa Ibom governor to do would have been to throw in the towel or at least step aside for an unbiased handling of the grave allegation of sexual advances by the Kogi Senator against him. It is common knowledge in law that one cannot be a judge in his own case.

To many observers, the suspension of Akpoti-Uduaghan came as a ploy to intimidate her from pursuing her rights with regards to her sexual harassment claims and subsequent petitions to that effect against the Senate president.

Before the suspension, the projection in many quarters was that the alarm by Senator Uduaghan would eventually be swept under the carpet and treated as a family affair in the Red chamber. That exactly became the outcome of the allegations against the Senate President as not much may be heard about it again since the complainant, had been sent out of circulation.

The argument in many quarters is that despite the suspension, the former ‘Uncommon Governor’ of Akwa Ibom State has lost the battle between him and Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan. Not a few believe that the development has eroded the confidence of Nigerians not only in the Senate but especially Akpabio whose leadership is considered a rubber stamp to the executive arm of government.

There are those who now hang the negative image of using his office to advance his sexual urges on the Senate president. It has become a recurring decimal in his public life.

Recall that on July 13, 2020, Joy Nunieh, a former acting managing director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), alleged that she slapped Akpabio for sexually harassing her. The Senate president was then the minister of Niger Delta affairs.

Nunieh had alleged the incident occurred at Akpabio’s Guest house in Abuja.

The ex-acting MD had said her reaction to the harassment proved her intolerance for “nonsense” as a woman from Rivers state.

Akpabio had then denied the allegation through a statement issued by his media aide but prior to the allegation, she and Akpabio had made the headlines following activities of the senate ad hoc panel investigating the alleged mismanagement of N40 billion by the interim management committee of the NDDC.

Akpabio had told the panel that he knew nothing about the expenditure of the NDDC under Nunieh because she refused to hand him briefings.

But Nunieh alleged that the minister engineered her removal for failing to follow his “illegal orders”.

Nunieh also alleged that Akpabio asked her to change the dollars in the NDDC account, sack the head of the legal team who was from the North, remove all directors who refused to follow his instructions, and to also implicate Peter Nwaoboshi, chairman of the senate committee on NDDC.