{"id":154198,"date":"2025-03-06T20:29:21","date_gmt":"2025-03-06T19:29:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/senator-natasha-you-lack-power-legitimacy-to-suspend-sitting-lawmaker-el-rufai-to-nigerian-senate"},"modified":"2025-03-10T23:55:42","modified_gmt":"2025-03-10T22:55:42","slug":"senator-natasha-you-lack-power-legitimacy-to-suspend-sitting-lawmaker-el-rufai-to-nigerian-senate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/senator-natasha-you-lack-power-legitimacy-to-suspend-sitting-lawmaker-el-rufai-to-nigerian-senate","title":{"rendered":"Senator Natasha: You lack power, legitimacy to suspend sitting lawmaker \u2013 El-Rufai to Nigerian Senate"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. <\/strong><\/span>Bashir El-Rufai, son of the former Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, has slammed the Senate for suspending Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan for six months.<\/p>\n<p>The Nigerian Senate suspended Senator Natasha for six months over an allegation of sexual harassment against the Senate President, Godswill Obot Akpabio.<\/p>\n<p>The suspension followed a report by the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges, and Public Petitions, submitted to the Committee of the Whole, citing several infractions of the Rules and Orders of the Senate.<\/p>\n<p>The Committee Chairman, Senator Imasuen Neda Bernards, representing Edo South Senatorial District, submitted that the committee carried out an investigation on Wednesday, during which the female lawmaker was afforded the opportunity to state her own side of the story.<\/p>\n<p>Detailing the proceedings of the committee\u2019s investigative hearing, he said testimonies were taken to ascertain the truth or otherwise of the allegation raised by the respondent, in line with the mandate of the committee.<\/p>\n<p>Senator Neda recalled that on Wednesday last week, the respondent caused \u201cchaos and a rowdy session\u201d when she refused a seat assigned to her and engaged in a shouting match, in discordance with the relevant provisions of the Rules and Orders of the Senate.<\/p>\n<p>Writing via his X handle, Bashir said, \u201cIt is important to note that the Nigerian Senate does not have the power nor the legitimacy to suspend a sitting Senator. It is illegal.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is a standalone tweet.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Also reacting to the suspension, a popular media personality, Oseni Rufai, said, \u201cThe Senate is a tainted institution. It lacks transparency.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The suspension comes after the female lawmaker submitted a petition on Wednesday where she officially accused the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, of sexual harassment.<\/p>\n<p>She also accused Akpabio of abuse of office and malicious obstruction of her legislative functions.<\/p>\n<p>Akpabio has denied allegations of sexual harassment levelled against him, insisting he does not harass women.<\/p>\n<p>The Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges, and Public Petitions had, before today, said that the \u2018sexual harassment\u2019 petition by Senator Natasha against Akpabio was \u201cdead on arrival.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Nigeria<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. Bashir El-Rufai, son of the former Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, has slammed the Senate for suspending Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan for six months. The Nigerian Senate suspended Senator Natasha for six months over an allegation of sexual harassment against the Senate President, Godswill Obot Akpabio. The suspension followed a report by [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":154197,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,14],"tags":[1651,11955,254,1684],"class_list":["post-154198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-el-rufai-2","tag-natasha","tag-nigeria","tag-nigerian"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Senator Natasha: You lack power, legitimacy to suspend sitting lawmaker \u2013 El-Rufai to Nigerian Senate - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Bashir El-Rufai, son of the former Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, has slammed the Senate for suspending Senat ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/senator-natasha-you-lack-power-legitimacy-to-suspend-sitting-lawmaker-el-rufai-to-nigerian-senate\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Senator Natasha: You lack power, legitimacy to suspend sitting lawmaker \u2013 El-Rufai to Nigerian Senate\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Bashir El-Rufai, son of the former Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, has slammed the Senate for suspending Senat ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/senator-natasha-you-lack-power-legitimacy-to-suspend-sitting-lawmaker-el-rufai-to-nigerian-senate\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-03-06T19:29:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-03-10T22:55:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/03\/sm_1741280824.275413.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1440\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1440\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/senator-natasha-you-lack-power-legitimacy-to-suspend-sitting-lawmaker-el-rufai-to-nigerian-senate#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/senator-natasha-you-lack-power-legitimacy-to-suspend-sitting-lawmaker-el-rufai-to-nigerian-senate\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Senator Natasha: You lack power, legitimacy to suspend sitting lawmaker \u2013 El-Rufai to Nigerian Senate\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-03-06T19:29:21+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-03-10T22:55:42+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/senator-natasha-you-lack-power-legitimacy-to-suspend-sitting-lawmaker-el-rufai-to-nigerian-senate\"},\"wordCount\":366,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/senator-natasha-you-lack-power-legitimacy-to-suspend-sitting-lawmaker-el-rufai-to-nigerian-senate#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/03\/sm_1741280824.275413.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"El Rufai\",\"Natasha\",\"Nigeria\",\"Nigerian\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/senator-natasha-you-lack-power-legitimacy-to-suspend-sitting-lawmaker-el-rufai-to-nigerian-senate#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/senator-natasha-you-lack-power-legitimacy-to-suspend-sitting-lawmaker-el-rufai-to-nigerian-senate\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/senator-natasha-you-lack-power-legitimacy-to-suspend-sitting-lawmaker-el-rufai-to-nigerian-senate\",\"name\":\"Senator Natasha: You lack power, legitimacy to suspend sitting lawmaker \u2013 El-Rufai to Nigerian Senate - 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