The suspended Kogi Central Senator, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, on Sunday, mocked the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, with a satirical apology posted on her official Facebook page.
In the letter, Mrs Akpoti-Uduaghan sarcastically apologised for her \u201ccrime of maintaining dignity and self-respect\u201d in the Senate.
She said success in the Senate under Mr Akpabio\u2019s leadership seemed to depend not on merit, but on compliance with personal demands.
\u201cIt is with the deepest sarcasm and utmost theatrical regret that I tender this apology for the grievous crime of possessing dignity and self-respect in your most exalted presence. I have reflected extensively on my unforgivable failure to recognize that legislative success in certain quarters is apparently not earned through merit, but through the ancient art of compliance \u2014 of the very personal kind,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mrs Akpoti-Uduaghan alleged that her refusal to give in to inappropriate sexual advances from Mr Akpabio contributed to her suspension.
She suggested that rejecting such advances was treated as a violation of unwritten rules that favour certain men\u2019s entitlement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHow remiss of me not to understand that my refusal to indulge your\u2026 \u201crequests\u201d was not merely a personal choice, but a constitutional violation of the unwritten laws of certain men\u2019s entitlement. Truly, I must apologize for prioritizing competence over capitulation, vision over vanity, and the people\u2019s mandate over private dinners behind closed doors.
\u201cI now realise the catastrophic consequences of my actions: legislation delayed, tempers flared, and the tragic bruising of egos so large they require their own postcodes. For this disruption to the natural order of \u201cquid pro quo,\u201d I bow my head in fictional shame.
\u201cPlease find it in your magnanimous heart \u2014 somewhere buried deep beneath layers of entitlement \u2014 to forgive this stubborn woman who mistakenly believed that her seat in the Senate was earned through elections, not erections,\u201d the lawmaker stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Akpoti-Uduagan\u2019s suspension<\/strong> All Senate properties in her possession were to be handed over to the Clerk to the National Assembly. At the same time, she was also prohibited from entering the National Assembly premises during the suspension period. She addressed delegates at an IPU meeting held at the United Nations headquarters in New York, during which she also raised allegations of sexual harassment against Mr Akpabio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Kogi senator described her suspension from the Senate as unlawful and a deliberate attempt to silence her for speaking out against alleged misconduct in the Nigerian upper legislative chamber. Senate Leader, Opeyemi Bamidele, explaining that Mrs Akpoti-Uduaghan\u2019s suspension was due to her alleged misconduct during the plenary and violations of Senate Standing Rules, and not in connection with the sexual harassment claims against Mr Akpabio. The suspended Kogi Central Senator, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, on Sunday, mocked the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, with a satirical apology posted on her official Facebook page. In the letter, Mrs Akpoti-Uduaghan sarcastically apologised for her \u201ccrime of maintaining dignity and self-respect\u201d in the Senate. She said success in the Senate under Mr Akpabio\u2019s leadership seemed to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":13587,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[18,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","category-naija-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.funminews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Natasha.jpeg?fit=608%2C505&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13588"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13588\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13589,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13588\/revisions\/13589"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.funminews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
On 6 March, the Senate voted to suspend Mrs Akpoti-Uduaghan for six months following the ethics committee\u2019s recommendations.
The decision was based on the ethics committee\u2019s report which indicted her for alleged misconduct during a plenary session on 20 February and her refusal to adhere to the chamber\u2019s sitting arrangement.
The Senate also imposed several penalties on her, including the withdrawal of all her security aides and the closure of her office within the National Assembly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Her salary and allowances were also suspended for the duration of the suspension, just as she was banned from presenting herself as a senator, both locally and internationally.
However, the Senate said the suspension could be lifted if Mrs Akpoti-Uduaghan submits a written apology, which the leadership may consider before the full six-month period expires.
On 11 March, Mrs Akpoti-Uduaghan took her case to the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), seeking international intervention in her suspension from the Senate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Responding, the President of the IPU, Tulia Ackson, said the global parliamentary organisation would take necessary steps on the cases as reported by the senator, but it would also provide an opportunity for the Nigerian Senate to present its side of the story before taking any action.
A Nigerian delegate at the IPU meeting on that day, Kafilat Ogbara, however held a press briefing a day after, during which she urged the National Assembly to ensure a fair and transparent investigation into the issue.
Mrs Ogbara, who chairs the House Committee on Women Affairs and Social Development, also read a letter from the<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since then, the IPU has yet to make comment on the issue and Mrs Akpoti-Uduaghan\u2019s suspension remains.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"