By Francis Onyeukwu
The Senate has said that it cannot recall Sen. Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan until it considers the contents of the Certified True Copy (CTC) of the court judgement in the case involving her and the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio.
The Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Sen. Yemi Adaramodu, stated this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Abuja.
NAN reports that the senate had, on March 6, suspended Akpoti-Uduaghan for six months amid the sexual harassment allegation she had made against Akpabio.
The suspension came after a recommendation from the Senate Committee on Ethics, Code of Conduct and Public Petitions, as presented by the Chairman of the Committee, Sen. Neda Imasuen (APC-Edo South).
As part of the suspension, the senator’s salary and security details were withdrawn, while she was barred from accessing the National Assembly premises.
She later took the matter to a Federal High Court, Abuja Division, where the presiding judge, Justice Binta Nyako, last week ordered the senate to recall her from suspension.
The court, however, sanctioned Akpoti-Uduaghan for contempt and ordered her to pay N5 million fine.
Adaramodu, who is the senate spokesperson, said that the upper legislative chamber had applied for the CTC, stressing that until the document was received and studied, the senate could not take a position on the matter.
“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.
Adaramodu noted with concern that some Nigerians were fanning the Akpoti-Uduaghan matter out of their low level of understanding of the workings of the senate.
He said that those acting in that direction were merely wishing the National Assembly to be a lawless institution.
“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.
“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 constitutional 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.
He also expressed the regret that even when the court ruling had given vent to that, some people were still saying something else.
“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.
According to him, if it is established that the senate can reprimand an offending senator and that it is not in their books how many days or hours such senator being reprimanded can be given, then it is at the discretion of the senate to apportion period for the suspension of a member being reprimanded.
“Whoever that is not a legislator cannot understand how the legislature works,” he said.
The senator, representing Ekiti South Senatorial District, explained that the 180 days suspension handed down to Akpoti-Uduaghan included non-parliamentary days.
“What the senate rules say is that you should observe, adhere to and fulfill the 180 parliamentary days,’’ he said.
(NAN)
