Public Affairs Analyst Majeed Dahiru has faulted Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan’s handling of recent Senate controversies, arguing that she should have apologized for violating chamber protocols before pursuing harassment claims against the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio.
Speaking during an interview with Nigeria Info FM from 2.20, Dahiru explained that Senate seat arrangements regularly change at leadership discretion. “I’ve interacted with a lot of senators who said, ‘Look, you can come to the Senate any time and see your seat changed. There’s nothing secret about any seating arrangement, so long as you’re not in the membership of the leadership,'” he stated.
The analyst emphasized that seat reassignments occur routinely. “So all seats are essentially the same. They shuffle at all times at the discretion of the Senate leadership, and I’m told at least once or twice seats have been shuffled, and on the day her seat was reassigned, she was not the only senator whose seat was reassigned,” Dahiru noted.
He argued that Akpoti-Uduaghan should have taken a different approach to the situation. “So she should have apologized for that first and then pursued her harassment allegation against Akpabio to its conclusion, either through the court or through the ethics committee, as the case may be,” Dahiru said.
The analyst noted that combining both issues has created complications. “But to entangle both situations has created this prolonged judicial imbroglio that is not in her favor or in favor of the people of her constituency,” he observed.
Dahiru also questioned the response from opposition parties, particularly the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and Labour Party (LP). He highlighted what he sees as inconsistency between party headquarters statements and the actions of their Senate members. “Now, for the LP and the PDP members or parties that are talking about the senator not having the right to be barred from coming in, isn’t it interesting that we had PDP members in the Senate—we have PDP party members in the Senate—and they did not utter a word of protest when she was being suspended?” Dahiru asked.
He noted the apparent disconnect within party structures. “As we speak, we’ve not seen the Senate caucus of the PDP or the party coming out to say we are breaking ranks with the majority APC on this matter. So sometimes I don’t know how the party hierarchy actually works—that officials in their headquarters make statements that their own members within the system are not even able to implement, carry out, or align with,” Dahiru said.
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