SENATE FAULTS NATASHA’S ACTION OVER SEATING ARRANGEMENT DISPUTE
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Yemi Adaramodu, the Senate spokesman, criticised his colleague Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan’s behaviour on Friday regarding a disagreement over seating arrangements in the sacred chamber.
Using Order 10 of the Senate Standing Rules, which safeguards members’ rights, Natasha, the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) representative for Kogi Central, refused to utilise the seat that was allotted to her on Thursday.
Senate President Godswill Akpabio ordered Senate security to usher the female legislator out of the chambers at the height of the crisis, but the involvement of other lawmakers prevented things from getting out of control.
In an interview with Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily, Adaramodu responded to the incident by stating that the upper chamber is for serious business.
“What we are saying is that the National Assembly is not for content creation in entertainment. National Assembly is for serious business,” he said.
Adaramodu, who represents Ekiti South Senatorial District, also dismissed Senator Natasha’s allegations of bullying.
“If she is talking like that being bullied or sidelined, as a first-timer, she even had three committees that she was appointed as chairman.
“You are entitled to only committee to be the chairman and she is in charge of Foreign Affairs, NGOs now,” the Senate spokesman said.
But the Senate spokesperson ruled out disciplinary measures against her. He said her colleagues from Kogi State, especially Senator Isah Jubril “had already tendered an apology on her behalf”.
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He assured that the 10th Senate wouldn’t revisit the issue following the apology on Akpoti-Uduaghan’s behalf.
“The Senate as a whole has already accepted that tendered apology, so we are not going to revisit that,” Adaramodu stated.
Weighing in on the issue, the Director of Programmes at Yiaga Africa, Cynthia Mbamalu, claimed Akpabio did not allow Senator Natasha to be heard.
According to her, Senator Natasha was not allowed to speak as permitted in Order 10 of the Senate Standing Rules.
“I felt for me, that in itself showed that there was even little tolerance to the little agitation she had presented,” she said on the show, citing a 2018 incident when Akpabio had a similar issue with then-Senate President Bukola Saraki.
“We have seen tougher and angrier agitations by Senators and no one has questioned them for being too agree,” the Yiaga director argued, saying Senator Natasha, “wasn’t violent, she wasn’t insulting. She kept making reference to an order in their rule book and she was speaking based on it.”
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