Natasha: Senate Like A Cult, Many Lawmakers Afraid To Speak Up

Senator representing Kogi Central at the National Assembly, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, has described the red chamber as a cult.

Akpoti-Uduaghan stated this during an interview with the BBC over the allegation of sexual harassment leveled against the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio.

This is coming few days after Natasha took the case to the United Nations “seeking for justice” over the matter.

Since the issue broke out, Akpabio has had an overwhelming support from senators, leading to Natasha’s six months suspension.

But during the interview, Natasha said her colleagues were afraid of expressing contrary views over the matter for fear of victimisation.

According to her, “I am being victimised. My suspension is a means of silencing me”.

Revisiting the allegation, she said, “It was episode after episode, moment after moment. We were at his country home. He was taking me around his house. My husband was walking behind us. He held my hand.

“He then squeezed my hands in a very suggestive way. We women, we know what it means when a man squeezes our hands in a suggestive way.

“And he went, ‘now that you’re in the senate, I’ll make an opportunity for us to come here and have a good moment’, you know, along that line.”

Asked if Akpabio ever made any advances towards her in the chamber or the senate, Natasha said: “There was a time when I rushed to work forgetting to wear my ring, there were about five senators there”.

He (Akpabio) said, “Oh Natasha, you are not wearing your ring, is this an invitation to treat?’ You know, statements like this”, she added.

But the senate’s deputy chief whip, Onyekachi Nwaebonyi, restated the denial of the senators added that “there was never a time Akpabio made sexual advances towards Akpoti-Uduaghan”.

He also said the senate president never made any inappropriate comments towards the female lawmaker whether in his country home or the senate chamber.

Nwaebonyi also rejected Akpoti-Uduaghan’s claim that the senate is trying to silence her.

“Senator Natasha’s legislative activities show this claim is not true,” he said.