News Editor
By David Odama
National Assembly, on Tuesday unsealed the office of suspended Senator representing Kogi Central Senatorial District, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan which has been under lock for over six months.
The office, located in Suite 2.05 of the Senate Wing, was formerly unsealed by the Deputy Director of the Sergeant-at-Arms, Alabi Adedeji.
“To unseal Senator Natasha Akpoti’s office, I, Alabi Adedeji, Deputy Director, Sergeant-at-Arms, hereby unseal the office,” he said while doing so before the camera.
The development, which would pave the way for the lawmaker to return to the Red Chamber when plenary resumes on October 7, happened after a court ruling that the suspension was excessive and unconstitutional.
Despite this, the Senate had maintained that Akpoti-Uduaghan could not resume her duties without a fresh resolution or a definitive court order.
The Kogi lawmaker was suspended by the Senate for six months in March over alleged violations of its standing rules following recommendation of its Committee on Ethics, Code of Conduct and Public Petitions, chaired by Senator Neda Imasuen (Edo South), also stripped her of aides, office privileges and salaries.
Her suspension attracted a lot of reactions, especially from the opposition political parties, civil society organizations and the organised labour condemning the action by the Senate.
The lawmaker has consistently claimed her ordeal was linked to a petition in which she accused Senate President, Senator Godswill Akpabio of sexual harassment, a charge the Red Chamber dismissed.
Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan had in July approached the court over the matter and made an unsuccessful attempt to resume sitting.
Again, as members of the National Assembly were preparing for resumption from their annual long recess on September 23, which had now been shifted to October 7, the lawmaker, having served out her six months suspension, formerly written to the Clerk to the National Assembly, CNA, declaring her intention to return to her duty.
In his reply, the CNA, however, advised Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan to hold on until the end of the court process on the matter.
“The matter remains sub judice, and until the judicial process is concluded, no administrative action can be taken to facilitate your resumption,” he stated in the reply.
The Senate maintained that her six-month suspension, which began on 6 March 2025, would only be reviewed after the Court of Appeal’s decision.
