Our Reporter, Abuja
A Federal High Court in Abuja Friday ordered the Senate to reinstate Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan who was suspended for six months, ruling that the Nigerian Senate acted beyond its powers.
Justice Binta Nyako, who delivered the judgment, said the duration of the suspension was “excessive” and without a clear legal foundation.
In the judgment the court ruled that both Chapter 8 of the Senate Standing Orders and Section 14 of the Legislative Houses (Powers and Privileges) Act, which the upper chamber relied upon, do not stipulate a maximum suspension period. Thus, Senator Godswill Akpabio-led senate was deemed to have overreached itself in the case.
Justice Nyako pointed out that since the National Assembly is only required to sit for 181 days in a legislative year, suspending a member for roughly that same length of time effectively silences the voice of an entire constituency—a move she described as unconstitutional.
“While the Senate has the authority to discipline its members, such sanctions must not go so far as to deny constituents their right to representation,” Nyako ruled.
Meanwhile, the court agreed with the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, on a separate issue, stating that his refusal to allow Akpoti-Uduaghan to speak during a plenary—on the grounds that she was not seated in her designated chair—did not amount to a violation of her rights.
It also dismissed Akpabio’s argument that the judiciary had no business interfering in what the judge called an “internal affair” of the legislature, stating that fundamental rights and representation are matters squarely within the court’s purview.
The court however fined Akpoti-Uduaghan for breaching a prior court directive that barred both parties from making public statements about the ongoing legal matter.
The court, noted that the embattled lawmaker went against its order by publishing a satirical apology to the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio.
According to the court, the said apology, which she published on her Facebook page on April 7, made a mockery of a gag order it had placed on the parties.
In view of the above, the court ordered Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan to, within seven days, publish an apology to it in two national dailies and also on her Facebook page.
She was also to pay a N5 million fine, stressing that her contempt was in a civil proceeding.
