The Chairman, Senate Committee on Inter Parliamentary Affairs, Senator Jimoh Ibrahim, has declared that the petition reportedly submitted by Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, to the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) in New York, was “dead on arrival.”
Senator Ibrahim, who represents Ondo South Senatorial District on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC), made the declaration in a statement he issued to journalists in Abuja.
Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan, was suspended for six months recently, after being investigated by the Senate Committee on Ethics, Code of Conduct and Public Petitions, of gross misconduct and violation of the Senate Standing rules as contained in the Senate Standing Orders 2023 (as amended).
She was actually suspended by the Senate, after the Committee’s investigation, which made recommendations for her suspension and other sanctions, following a fierce altercation she had with the President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio, over seating rearrangement in the Red Chamber.
The lawmaker had also in an interview session on Arise Television, accused the President of the Senate of frustrating her legislative efforts in the Senate for rejecting his alleged sexual advances.
Similarly, days after her suspension, Akpoti-Uduaghan appeared at the IPU Conference in New York, where she told participants that she was suspended because she accused the President of the Senate of sexually harassing her.
While she was speaking at the Women in Parliament session during the Inter-Parliamentary Union meeting, the aggrieved politician called on the international body to intervene and hold the Nigerian Senate accountable for the action against her, which she described as injustice.
However, commenting on the matter in his statement, Senator Ibrahim clarified that individual lawmakers are not members of the IPU, Nigeria as a nation is a member of the parliamentary body.
According to him, only member-states can file petitions against each other, making it impossible for the suspended Senator’s petition to be entertained by the global parliamentary organisation.
“The suspended Senator Natasha is not a member of the IPU, but Nigeria is,” he stated. “She also cannot represent the Federal Republic of Nigeria at the IPU.”
The Ondo South Senator further disclosed that during his tenure as interim President of the IPU in Geneva in 2023, he gained firsthand knowledge of how the body functions.
Ibrahim pointed out that, as the current Chairman of the Interparliamentary Committee in the Nigerian Senate, he did not approve or authorise Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan to attend the IPU on behalf of Nigeria.
