Justice Binta Nyako of the Federal High Court in Abuja has ordered the Senate to recall the suspended Kogi Central Senator, Mrs. Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan.
Delivering judgement on Friday, Justice Nyako described as excessive the six-month suspension that was imposed on the lawmaker by the Senate.
The judge faulted the provision in Chapter 8 of the Senate Standing Rules, as well as Section 14 of the Legislative Houses, Powers, and Privileges Act, declaring both to be overreaching.
The court also held that Senate President Godswill Akpabio was not wrong to have denied Akpoti-Uduaghan, who was not in the official seat that was allotted to her, the opportunity to speak during plenary. The court asked her to apologise to the Senate.
Justice Nyako added that the two pieces of legislation failed to specify the maximum period that a serving lawmaker could be suspended from office.
According to the court, since lawmakers have a total of 181 days to sit in every legislative cycle, the six-month suspension handed to Akpoti-Uduaghan was equivalent to pushing her away from her responsibilities to her constituents for approximately 180 days.
It held that, although the Senate has the power to punish any of its members who err, such sanction must not be excessive to deprive the constituents of their right to be represented.
Justice Nyako equally dismissed Akpabio’s contention that the court lacked the jurisdiction to entertain the suit, which he said bordered on an internal affair of the Senate.
Earlier in the ruling, the court awarded a N5 million fine against Akpoti-Uduaghan for acting in breach of its order that barred the parties from making public statements about the subject matter of the suit.
It further ordered her to, within seven days, publish an apology to it in two national dailies.
Akpoti-Uduaghan is also facing two separate cases of cybercrime and defamation in two separate courts in the nation’s capital.
The protracted feud between Akpabio and Akpoti-Uduaghan reached a climax on Thursday, 6 March 2025 when the Senate wielded the big stick and suspended the Kogi Central senator, who accused the Senate President of sexual harassment and abuse of office after a seat arrangement conflict on 20 February 2025.
Akpabio denied the allegation.
The female senator also slammed a N100 billion alleged defamation suit on the Senate President, while the Akpabio-led legislative chamber referred her to the Senate disciplinary committee.
On Wednesday, 5 March 2025, the Senate committee dismissed Akpoti-Uduaghan’s sexual harassment and abuse of office petition against the Senate President, declaring it “dead on arrival” based on procedural violations and legal constraints but the female senator re-submitted the petition on Thursday.
The seat row was not the first incident between Akpabio and Akpoti-Uduaghan. In July 2024, the Senate President apologised to the female lawmaker over his nightclub comment against the female lawmaker.
