(JUST IN ) Court’s ruling:  Senate gives update on Natasha

The Senate has explained that  suspended Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan will not be reinstated immediately, as it is yet to review the Certified True Copy (CTC) of the recent court judgment ordering her recall.

Speaking in Abuja on Sunday, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Yemi Adaramodu, confirmed that the Senate is awaiting the official court document before taking further action.

Akpoti-Uduaghan was suspended on March 6 following allegations of sexual harassment she leveled against Senate President Godswill Akpabio. Her suspension came on the heels of a report by the Senate Committee on Ethics, Code of Conduct, and Public Petitions, presented by Senator Neda Imasuen (APC-Edo South).

In addition to the suspension, Akpoti-Uduaghan lost access to her salary, security aides, and was barred from the National Assembly premises.

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Challenging her suspension, she approached the Federal High Court in Abuja. Last week, Justice Binta Nyako ordered the Senate to reinstate her but also ruled against her for contempt of court, imposing a fine of N5 million.

Adaramodu said the upper chamber had already applied for the court’s CTC and would act upon studying its contents.

“The Senate had applied for the CTC since Monday. We expect to get the document, and once we get it, we are going to comply with the content of the court order.

But first, the Senate will sit and consider the contents of the CTC and when we look at the contents, then we shall take a position,” he said.

The Senate spokesperson also pushed back against public criticism of the Senate’s handling of the matter, stating that many Nigerians misunderstand how the legislature functions.

“The Senate, by law, is empowered to make its rules that guide it. If we don’t have rules guiding us, we will become like barbarians.

If there is no rule on seating, it means early in the morning, I can wake up and say I want to sit where the president of the Senate is sitting because he is my colleague, and that will turn the whole place into chaos and pandemonium,” he said.

He pointed out that even the court had acknowledged the Senate’s constitutional authority to establish and enforce its own rules.

“It was on the strength of the aforesaid that the court recently averred in the case between Natasha and Akpabio that there are rules and that the Senate is constitutionally empowered to make rules that will guide its activities.

It was for this that we have Standing Orders. And enforcing the orders means that anybody that contravenes it, the aggregated whole chamber of the Senate can reprimand such a person,” he said.

Adaramodu expressed concern that, despite the court ruling, some members of the public continue to misrepresent the issue.

“Possibly, what they were expecting was that anybody can disobey; anybody can break any rule and that the Senate must not take any stand,” he said.

He further argued that the duration of a suspension is at the Senate’s discretion since there is no specific rule stipulating a fixed period.
“Whoever that is not a legislator cannot understand how the legislature works,” he said.

The Ekiti South lawmaker clarified that the 180-day suspension imposed on Akpoti-Uduaghan accounts for both sitting and non-sitting days.

“What the Senate rules say is that you should observe, adhere to and fulfill the 180 parliamentary days,” he said.