Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, has warned against any official probe by security agencies into how suspended Kogi Central Senator, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, was able to attend the Inter-Parliamentary Union meeting in New York.
In a statement on Sunday, the Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) said any probe by security agencies could bring ‘needless embarrassment and undeserved ridicule’ to the country.
PUNCH Online reports that Akpoti-Uduaghan spoke at the IPU meeting on 11 March about her suspension from the Senate for gross misconduct.
The lawmaker stated that her suspension was designed to silence her over the sexual harassment allegations leveled against Senate President Godswill Akpabio.
Reacting on the floor of the Senate on Tuesday, Akpabio stated that the Kogi senator’s actions at the IPU meeting humiliated the government and people of Nigeria.
A report emerged on Sunday that the Department of State Services (DSS) and the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) have launched a probe into how the Kogi senator attended the IPU meeting without an official nomination.
But Falana warned that the investigation would embarrass some top officials of President Bola Tinubu administration.
The statement reads in parts, ‘Finally, it is public knowledge that the Senate President, Senator Godswill Akpabio had accused Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan of embarrassing the government and people of the Federal Republic of Nigeria by reporting her suspension by the senate to the Inter-Parliamentary Union.
‘Contrary to the jaundiced views of the senate leader, it is the official probe of the circumstances of her trip by security forces that will expose Nigeria to needless embarrassment and undeserved ridicule
‘Therefore, the SSS and NIA may study the report of the investigation of our illegal travelling by the Sani Abacha military junta before embarking on the futile attempt to probe Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan for having the temerity to externalise the “internal affair of the Senate”‘.
‘In fact, the probe will particularly embarrass some top officials of the Bola Tinubu administration who were once accused of travelling out of Nigeria to embarrass the defunct military junta’.
