•Femi Falana, SAN
Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN), has revealed that courts in Nigeria have banned the illegal suspension of legislators.
Falana, who disclosed this in a statement yesterday, said due to the court pronouncements, including the Court of Appeal on the illegality of the suspension of elected members of legislative houses in Nigeria, the “suspension of Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan is the height of legislative recklessness,” reports Daily Trust.
He charged the Senate to immediately lift the suspension of Senator Natasha since “the Federal High Court had restrained the Senate Ethics Committee from hearing the complaint against the embattled senator pending the determination of the motion on notice the Senate ought to have stayed action in accordance with the rule of law.”
Relatedly, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has urged the Senate President, Mr Godswill Akpabio, to “immediately rescind the unlawful suspension of Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, as it is based solely on the peaceful exercise of her constitutionally and internationally recognised right to freedom of expression.”
SERAP said, “The Senate should immediately reinstate Mrs Akpoti-Uduaghan, and revise parliamentary procedures that unduly restrict senators’ human rights.”
The Senate last week suspended Mrs Akpoti-Uduaghan for six months, after she reportedly ‘spoke without permission’ and ‘refused her new seat in the upper legislative chamber.’ Her salary and allowances will not be paid for the duration of the suspension and she was banned from presenting herself as a senator.
In the open letter dated March 8, 2025 and signed by SERAP deputy director, Kolawole Oluwadare, the organisation said: “No one should ever be punished for ‘speaking without permission’. Being a senator does not deprive Mrs Akpoti-Uduaghan of her fundamental human rights.”
SERAP said, “The Senate should be setting an example by upholding the rule of law and promoting and protecting fundamental human rights, not stamping them out.”
Meanwhile, a former Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki has denied asking Senate President to resign over the allegations of sexual harassment levelled against him by Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan (PDP, Kogi Central).
Saraki also asked Akpabio to stop politicising or trivialising the issue, saying the call on him to ensure that a transparent and open process is instituted in investigating the allegations levelled against him by Natasha was not an attempt to remove him from office.
The former Senate President in a statement on Sunday by Yusuph Olaniyonu, the head of his media office in Abuja, urged Akpabio to read his press statement dated March 1st, 2025 meticulously, adding there was nowhere he suggested Akpabio should resign.
Saraki said the statement by Akpabio, while addressing the leaders of some youth groups from the Niger Delta on Friday that certain individuals from Kwara and Adamawa States wanted him removed because he is from the Niger Delta region was incorrect.
Saraki advised that Akpabio should act in the best interest of the legislative institution by ensuring that “No reasonable person is left with any doubt about the fact that the allegations raised by the senator were investigated and justifiably dispensed with.”
The statement said, “Dr. Saraki in his last comment on the Akpabio-Natasha Akpoti Uduaghan crisis never called on the Senate President to resign or step aside.
“Rather, he urged the Senate President to be conscious of the fact that perception is reality and therefore he should avoid treating the allegations by the senator in a manner that will create the perception that the Senate as an institution is trying to cover up issues bordering on sexual harassment, gender discrimination and abuse of office.
“Also, Dr. Saraki made it clear that his intervention was neither about Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan nor whether her claim was right or not. He stated that since the Senator has gone public with such serious allegations against the presiding officer, the image of the institution should be saved through an honest, sincere, open, transparent and unbiased investigation.”
