Controversy Trails Senator Natasha’s Suspension As Some Senators Disclaim Imasuen-led Committee Report

The controversy surrounding the suspension of the Kogi Central Senator, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, has deepened, with allegations that the signatures attached to the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges, and Public Petitions’ report were not for the endorsement of the suspension but rather attendance records.

This led to confusion at a closed-door Senate meeting as some senators reportedly claimed their signatures were misrepresented to give the impression of unanimous support for the suspension.

On March 5, 2025 members of the Senate Committee on Ethics convened to investigate the seat rearrangement dispute between Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan and the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio.

On that day, senators who attended the committee’s sitting signed the attendance register, while others abstained.

Based on the Senate’s rules, all senators can attend committee meetings, whether or not they are members of such a committee.

Also, all the senators who attend a committee’s meeting can sign the attendance register.

However, on Thursday March 6, 2025 the Chairman of the Ethics and Public Petition Committee, Senator Neda Imasuen, in what appeared a teleguided presentation, laid the report of his committee on the table for adoption by the Senate.

Surprisingly, Imasuen attached the signatures of the attendance by senators to the final Report of the Committee that was not endorsed by some of those that attended the sitting of the committee thereby created the impression that all signatories including those who are not members of the Committee but merely attended based on interest as having endorsed the committee’s recommendations.

Curiously, the Imasuen-led committee in one of its recommendations, barred Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan from being addressed and identified as a Senator within Nigeria and internationally for the six months of her suspension.

This recommendation is being viewed as obnoxious and   challenged by some members of the Committee who are insisting that it was smuggled into the Report since it did not form part of their discussion and adoption. Moreover, the concerned senators are of the view that since Senator Natasha was elected by her constituents and issued Certificate of Return by INEC, the senate does not have the powers in any material particular to remove a status bestowed on her by the Constitution.

Accordingly, some of the senators who signed the attendance register have distanced themselves from the alleged doctored report, stressing that they were not accorded the privilege of going through the final draft of the Report before it was presented on the floor of the Senate.

A senator who attended the closed-door meeting of the Senate where the matter was tabled and discussed but requested not to be named, told PREMIUM TIMES that the proper process should have been for the committee members to examine and approve the report before its presentation.

The Senator said; “Members were unaware of the content of the Report until it was read on the floor of the Senate.

It was gathered that some of Senator Imasuen’s colleagues in the committee, expressed serious concern about the improper use of their signatures during a closed-door meeting which lasted about two hours on Wednesday.

A Senator said; “Those who objected to using their signatures were two senators from the North-west geopolitical zone, one from the North-east and another from the North-central. They argued that their signatures were misused because they did not explicitly consent to the report’s recommendations.

“Their position is based on the principle that signing an attendance register does not equate to endorsing a resolution and therefore insisted that their signatures should not have been attached to a report they neither reviewed nor approved.

“The senators also emphasised that the report should have been circulated among members of the committee before being presented to ensure transparency and due process,” the Senator said.

The decision to hurriedly suspend Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan was based on the Ethics committee’s report which indicted her for alleged misconduct during a plenary session on February 20, and her refusal to adhere to the chamber’s sitting arrangement even though she was not present at the committee’s sitting because of the pendency of a suit in court.

Following the lack of adherence to due process by the Senate in carrying out the investigation and the hurried process adopted by the Imasuen-led committee, Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan on Tuesday, March 11, 2025, took her case to the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), seeking international intervention in her suspension from the Senate.

Akpoti-Uduaghan while addressing delegates at the IPU meeting held at the United Nations headquarters in New York, raised allegations of sexual harassment against Senator Godswill Akpabio.

Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan pointedly described her suspension from the Nigerian Senate as unlawful and a deliberate attempt to silence her for speaking out against alleged misconduct in the Nigerian upper legislative chamber.

However, in spite of some of the Senators raising serious concerns at the closed-door meeting, none of them has volunteered to speak on the matter publicly.

This controversy surrounding signatures has further fueled concerns that the suspension of Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan was decided without due process.

Since the controversial report, Senator Imasuen have become incommunicado refusing to speak with the media.