It is believed that the report’s signatures were stolen from the attendance register. The image was taken by @NGRSenate at plenary (https://twitter.com/NGRSenate/status/1806340170641273202/photo/4). (Photo courtesy of @NGRSenate) Senate at plenary The controversy surrounding the suspension of Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan of Kogi Central has intensified due to claims that the signatures on the report from the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges, and Public Petitions were for attendance records rather than to support the suspension.CONTINUE FULL READING>>>>>
Some senators allegedly stated that their signatures were falsified to provide the appearance of unanimous support for the suspension, which caused uncertainty during a Senate discussion held behind closed doors. Support or attendance? The Senate Committee on Ethics met on March 5th to look into the disagreement over seat assignments between Senate President Godswill Akpabio and Mrs. Akpoti-Uduaghan. While some senators abstained on that particular day, those who attended the committee’s meeting signed the attendance register.
Regardless of whether they are members of a committee or not, all senators are permitted to attend committee sessions under Senate rules. Additionally, the attendance register may be signed by each senator present at a committee meeting. The attendance sheet’s signatures were included when the ethics committee’s chairman, Neda Imasuen, presented the committee’s findings on the Senate floor on March 6. This gave the appearance that all signatories agreed with the committee’s conclusions.
One of the report’s main suggestions was to forbid Mrs. Akpoti-Uduaghan from identifying herself as a senator for the six months that she would be suspended, both domestically and abroad. According to reports, some senators who signed the attendance register have now distanced themselves from the report, claiming that they were not permitted to see the final draft prior to its presentation on the Senate floor. According to a senator who was present at the meeting when the issue was discussed, the committee members ought to have reviewed and approved the report prior to its presentation. But until it was read aloud on the Senate floor, lawmakers had no idea what it contained.
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Akpoti-Uduaghan, Natasha The pause Taking the ethics committee’s recommendations into consideration, the Senate decided on March 6 to suspend Mrs. Akpoti-Uduaghan for six months. The ethics committee’s findings, which indicts her for alleged wrongdoing during a plenary session on February 20 and her unwillingness to follow the chamber’s sitting arrangement, served as the basis for the decision. She also faced a number of sanctions from the Senate, such as the termination of her position in the National Assembly and the removal of all of her security guards.
The Clerk to the National Assembly would receive all Senate property that she possessed. During the suspension period, she was also not allowed to enter the National Assembly’s grounds. In addition to being prohibited from representing herself as a senator both domestically and abroad, her pay and benefits were also suspended for the term of the suspension. The Senate did leave open the possibility that the suspension may be removed in the event that Mrs. Akpoti-Uduaghan submitted a written apology, which the leadership could take into consideration prior to the whole six-month period ending. In an attempt to get international assistance in her Senate suspension, Mrs. Akpoti-Uduaghan presented her case to the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) on Tuesday.
She made accusations of sexual harassment against Mr. Akpabio while speaking to delegates at an IPU meeting at the UN headquarters in New York. The senator from Kogi said that her suspension from the Senate was illegal and an intentional ploy to keep her quiet for criticizing alleged wrongdoing in the upper house of government in Nigeria. Senators oppose the use of signatures. Additionally, our source verified that at a two-hour closed-door meeting on Wednesday, some of Mr. Imasuen’s committee colleagues voiced concerns regarding the inappropriate use of their signatures.
The legislator claimed that two senators from the North-west geopolitical zone—one from the North-east and one from the North-central—objected to using their signatures. They allegedly claimed that because they did not expressly agree with the report’s recommendations, their signatures were being exploited. Their stance is founded on the idea that approving a resolution is not the same as signing an attendance record. They maintained that a report that they had not examined or approved should not have had their signatures on it. In order to guarantee openness and due process, the senators further emphasized that the report had to have been distributed to every committee member prior to its presentation.
Despite raising their concerns during the private meeting, none of these senators have publicly spoken them. The Kogi senator adds Akpabio calls on Akpoti-Uduagan to apologize for the possible suspension reversal, embarrassing Nigeria. Discussion about endorsement Attending the meeting implies participation in any decisions made during the session, according to several senators on the opposing side of the closed-door conference. They contended that after a committee has rendered a decision, more signatures are not necessary.
Whether or whether a senator signed the recommendation, the opposing viewpoint suggests that their attendance at a meeting indicates that they accepted the conclusion. The dispute around signatures exacerbates worries that Mrs. Akpoti-Uduaghan’s suspension was decided without following the proper procedures.CONTINUE FULL READING>>>>>
