The standoff between Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan and the Nigerian Senate is growing more intense and more public. Last week, in a dramatic turn of events, the embattled lawmaker was physically blocked from entering the National Assembly complex on Tuesday, 22 July 2025, just days after the Federal High Court ruled that the legal provisions on which her suspension was based were excessive and were not in line with constitutional provisions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the judgment delivered by\nJustice Binta Nyako, the Federal High Court held that the provisions of Chapter\n8 of the Senate Rules and Section 14(2) of the Legislative House (Powers &\nPrivileges) Act which allow for indefinite suspension of legislative members are\nat variance with the intendment of the Constitution. Section 14(2) of\nthe Legislative Houses (Powers and Privileges) Act, 2017 authorizes\nlegislative houses to suspend members found in contempt, depriving them of\naccess and compensation, though the duration must not outlast the\ncurrent legislative session. It states as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
14(2): Where a\nmember commits a contempt of Legislative House, the Legislative House may\nby resolution reprimand such person or suspend him from service of the\nLegislative House, without pay, for such period as may be determined by the\nHouse, but not to the end of a legislative session.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The judge however, found her in\ncontempt of court for a Facebook post that breached an earlier gag order on\npublic comments about the case. The penalty was a \u20a65 million fine and a\nmandatory apology on social media and in two national dailies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Following the judgment, Senator\nAkpoti-Uduaghan wrote to the National Assembly informing it of her intention to\nresume her duties following the Court judgment. However, in a July 14th letter\nto her legal team, the National Assembly\u2019s Director of Litigation, Charles Yoila,\ndescribed the ruling as \u201cdeclaratory\u201d meaning, in their view, it\u2019s a\nsuggestion, not a command. The letter claims the judgment merely acknowledged\nthat her constituents deserve representation but didn\u2019t legally compel her\nreturn. Whether or not the suspension is lifted, the Senate says, is entirely\nat its discretion. No formal debate has taken place on this yet, and Senate\nPresident Akpabio has stayed silent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The relevant portion of\nthe judgment is reproduced below: <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOn the issue of denial of the Plaintiff\nto the representation of her senatorial district without inspiring the function\nof the NASS, I will give and say (sic) due to the gravity of the issue, I have\nread in its entirety, the Senate Rules under which the Plaintiff was suspended\nthus denying the representation of her senatorial districts. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n I believe that the Constitution,\nLegislative House (Powers and Privileges) Act nor the Senate Rules will not\nintend for that to happen. I have read with interest, chapter IX (8) of the\nSenate Rules and Section 14(2) of the Legislative House (Powers &\nPrivileges) Act allows the Senate to suspend a senator until a time determined\nby the Senate (ad infinitum) while S.14(2) allows for suspension of a member\n(Senator) in similar terms even without pay. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n I do not think the Constitution\nenvisages this. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n A Senator is expected to represent\nhis people in either Legislative house for a specific number of days per\nsession. If any suspension is unwarranted, then I opine that the Act and the\nSenate Rules should also be specific and not live (sic) it at large. A\nsuspension cannot exceed the requisite number of days the member should sit.\nThe Constitution says a legislative year is 181 days and the House should sit for\nthis number of days. This makes it at least 36.2 weeks in a year which is a\nsession. To suspend a member for 6 months means suspension for 180 days and\nthis is half the number of days the member is expected to sit in the House\nrepresenting his people. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n I do not think this is the intention of the framer of the law. To make a law that has no end is excessive and cannot be the intendment of the law. I am of the opinion that the Senate has the power to review this provision of the Senate Rules and even amend Section 14(2) of the Legislative Houses (Powers & Privileges) Act both for being overreaching. The Senate has the power to and I believe should recall the plaintiff and allow her to same-time, represent the people who sent her there to represent them<\/strong><\/em>“.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan has fired\nback, heading to the Court of Appeal to contest the contempt ruling. Her legal\nteam, bolstered by several Senior Advocates of Nigeria, argues that the court\nruling was procedurally flawed and showed judicial bias. Their argument is that\nthe court lacked the authority to convict her for contempt committed outside\nthe courtroom without a separate trial, as required by Nigerian law, including\nunder the Sheriffs and Civil Process Act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Amid the legal wrangling, another\nwrinkle has emerged: confusion over who the court-ordered apology is actually\nmeant for. A Senate spokesperson earlier claimed it was directed at the Senate,\nbut the Certified True Copy (CTC) of the judgment confirms that the apology is\nowed to the court, not the Senate. This distinction matters as critics\nargue it shows the Senate is deliberately stretching the facts to avoid\nreinstating her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But beneath the courtroom drama is\na deeper political battle. Akpoti-Uduaghan was first appointed Chair of the\nLocal Content Committee, only to be reassigned in February 2025 to the Diaspora\nand NGOs Committee. That reshuffle engineered by Senate President Akpabio is\nwidely seen as the spark that lit the fuse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Her suspension came swiftly after\nshe went public with the harassment allegation. Her salary and security details\nwere withdrawn, her access to the National Assembly was blocked, and the\nDiaspora and NGOs Committee chairmanship position was handed to\nSenator Aniekan Bassey. The optics have raised serious concerns about due\nprocess and whether this is less about rules and more about retaliation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Outside the Senate, opinions are\nsplit. Some argue the chamber is defending its internal order. Others see a\ntroubling abuse of power, a case of silencing a dissenting voice and punishing\npolitical defiance. Either way, the case has reignited national conversations\naround legislative accountability, the limits of Senate authority, and the\nrights of constituents to not be deprived of representation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The standoff between Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan and the Nigerian Senate is growing more intense and more public. Last week, in a dramatic turn of events, the embattled lawmaker was physically blocked from entering the National Assembly complex on Tuesday, 22 July 2025, just days after the Federal High Court ruled that the legal provisions on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3907,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3901"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3901\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3911,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3901\/revisions\/3911"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}