Senate Rejects Calls For Akpabio To Step Aside Over Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan’s Sexual Advances Claim

MONDAY March 3, 2025 |TheNewsDESK
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The Senate has dismissed calls for Senate President Godswill Akpabio to step aside amid allegations of sexual harassment made by Kogi Central Senator, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, The StreetJOURNAL reports.

Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan recently accused Akpabio of victimizing her and denying her certain legislative privileges after she allegedly rejected his sexual advances.

While Akpabio has remained silent on the matter, his spokesperson, Eseme Eyibo, denied the allegations over the weekend as the controversy continued to stir public debate.

This is not the first time Akpabio has faced such accusations. In 2022, Joy Nunieh, former acting Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, claimed she slapped Akpabio in response to an alleged act of sexual harassment.

Addressing the issue on Monday, March 3, 2025, Senate spokesperson Yemi Adaramodu rejected the notion that Akpabio should step aside, questioning why a precedent had not been set in similar cases.

He specifically referenced former Senate President Bukola Saraki, who faced multiple allegations during his tenure but did not step down. However, it is important to note that Saraki was never accused of sexual harassment.

Adaramodu further clarified that unless a formal petition is submitted or the matter is raised on the Senate floor, the chamber cannot initiate a discussion or investigation. He emphasized that the Senate operates within structured guidelines and cannot act outside its established procedures.

“He (Saraki) could have advised. Even while as Senate President, there were so many allegations, either by Senators or from outside the Senate, targeted against him. And there was never a time that he had to step in for an investigation to be carried out,” he said.

“But in this matter, there is presently no matter before the Senate. The only matter that is before the Senate now is the matter between Senator Natasha and the rest of the Senate, which is not complying with the standing order of the Senate.

“If there is anything that comes tomorrow, or anything for that matter, about any senator in the National Assembly, be that Senator, the Senate President, the deputy president, or myself, then the ethics privileges and public petition committee once it is referred to them will handle it.

“It is that committee that is going to determine the mode by which it is going to treat such a petition, and then it is going to be taken as an internal affair—an internal affair to the extent that it is a senator versus another senator.

“You know that in the Senate, which is the upper chamber, we enjoy that kind of absolute privilege, and whatever we do, whatever we say within the Senate chambers, is not actionable in court.

“So because of that, the ethics and the public petition committee know why.

“If there is any petition for that matter that comes, not only this, that we are even discussing, anything that comes, it is that committee that is going to handle it.”