Keep up with the latest news and be part of our weekly giveaways and airtime sharing; follow our WhatsApp channel for more updates. Click to Follow us

Yemi Adaramodu, the Senate spokesman, criticized his colleague Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan’s behavior 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 utilize 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.

On Friday, December 15, 2023, a day after his 61st birthday colloquium, Akpabio was at his Abuja office. X@adamugarba

Additionally, Adaramodu, the senatorial representative for Ekiti South, denied Senator Natasha’s claims 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.

However, the Senate spokesperson denied that she would face disciplinary action. According to him, Senator Isah Jubril in particular, along with her Kogi State colleagues, “had already tendered an apology on her behalf.”

He promised that after Akpoti-Uduaghan apologized, the 10th Senate would not bring up the matter again.

“The Senate as a whole has already accepted that tendered apology, so we are not going to revisit that,” Adaramodu stated.

Cynthia Mbamalu, the Director of Programs at Yiaga Africa, offered her opinion on the matter, arguing that Akpabio denied Senator Natasha a chance to be heard.

She claimed that Senator Natasha had violated Order 10 of the Senate Standing Rules by failing to speak.

“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.”

Please don’t forget to “Allow the notification” so you will be the first to get our gist when we publish it. 
Drop your comment in the section below, and don’t forget to share the post.