‘Natasha Was In Gross Violation Of Senate Standing Orders’ – Senator Adeola

Chairman of the Senate Committee on Appropriations, Senator Olamilekan Adeola, has said Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan was suspended for flagrant violation of the Senate Standing Orders and the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Naija News reports that Adeola, in a statement issued on Wednesday in Abuja, said Natasha cannot position herself as bigger than the Senate, noting that she remains suspended until she fulfills the conditions offered for her suspension to be reconsidered or a court of competent jurisdiction decides otherwise.

Senator Adeola asserted that even as a three-time elected Senator with over 22 years as a parliamentarian at the state and federal legislature, he cannot claim superiority over the Senate, not to talk about someone with less than two years of experience in legislative activities.

According to the lawmaker, Natasha did not exhaust the internal mechanisms available to her for any grievance, stressing that by filing a lawsuit against the Presiding Officer of the Senate, her petition cannot be entertained in the Senate until the court decides on the suit she filed.

Adeola said, “As a member of the 10th Senate with experience as a member of the 8th and 9th Senate, I make bold to say that Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan was in gross violation of the Senate Standing Orders and the Senate did the appropriate thing in her suspension. We are all Senators-Elect until sworn in with the Constitution and the Standing Orders. It is only then that we become Senators under oath to abide by the Constitution and the Standing Orders.

“The Senate as an institution derives its power from the Constitution to make rules for its orderly conduct. And the Legislative House (Powers and Privilege) Act 2018 grants the Senate rights to conduct its affairs as an arm of government free from judicial encumbrances. The outcome of its decisions can be challenged but the Senate cannot be stopped from functioning as an arm of government.”

Speaking on Natasha’s allegation of sexual harassment against Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, Adeola stated that such a claim without concrete evidence amounts to an attack on the institution of Nigeria’s parliament.

He noted that the female senators in the Senate have not been suppressed, silenced or oppressed as all honour and courtesies due any senator are accorded to them within and outside the Red Chamber.

Adeola further called on the International Parliamentary Union (IPU) not to be coaxed to do anything that will diminish the status of the parliament.

He said, “I want to call on the International Parliamentary Union, IPU, not to be coaxed to do anything that will diminish the status of the parliament as the bastion of democracy. IPU should not succumb to being used as an instrument of blackmail against a national institution of parliament.”