Justice Binta Nyako of the Federal High Court in Abuja has ordered the Senate to recall the suspended Kogi Central Senator, Natasha Akpoti, Channels TV reports.
According to the report by Channels, delivering judgement, 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 Senator Natasha, 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 Senator Natasha Akpoti Uduaghan was equivalent to pushing her away from her responsibilities to her constituents for approximately 180 days.
It held that though 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 imposed a ₦5 million fine on Senator Natasha Akpoti Uduaghan for violating its order, which barred the parties from making public statements about the subject matter of the suit.
It further ordered her to publish an apology within seven days in two national dailies.
Senator 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, March 6, 2025, when the Senate wielded its authority and suspended the Kogi Central Senator who had accused the Senate President of sexual harassment and abuse of office, following a seat arrangement conflict on February 20, 2025.
Akpabio denied the sexual harassment allegations against him by the Kogi lawmaker.
The female senator also slammed a N100bn alleged defamation suit on him while the Akpabio-led upper legislative chamber referred her to the Senate disciplinary committee.
On Wednesday, March 5, 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 wasn’t the first between Akpabio and Akpoti-Uduaghan. In July 2024, the Senate President apologised to the female lawmaker over his nightclub comment against the female lawmaker.