{"id":154275,"date":"2025-03-07T18:59:23","date_gmt":"2025-03-07T17:59:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/ex-presidential-aide-obono-obla-faults-senates-six-month-suspension-of-natasha"},"modified":"2025-03-19T10:13:18","modified_gmt":"2025-03-19T09:13:18","slug":"ex-presidential-aide-obono-obla-faults-senates-six-month-suspension-of-natasha","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/ex-presidential-aide-obono-obla-faults-senates-six-month-suspension-of-natasha","title":{"rendered":"Ex-presidential aide Obono-Obla faults Senate\u2019s six-month suspension of Natasha"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. <\/strong><\/span>Former presidential aide, Chief Okoi Obono-Obla, has criticised the Senate for suspending Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan for six months over an alleged violation of Senate rules and her accusation of sexual harassment against Senate President, Dr Godswill Akpabio.<\/p>\n<p>Obono-Obla argued that the penalty is excessive, unjustified, and disproportionately long compared to similar cases.<\/p>\n<p>He recalled that Senators Ali Ndume and Ovie Omo-Agege were each suspended for 90 legislative days in the past.<\/p>\n<p>He insisted that the Senate ought to serve as a paragon of truth, justice, and the rule of law.<\/p>\n<p>Obono-Obla said, \u201cThe Senate is part of the National Assembly, which is constitutionally empowered to make laws for the peace, stability, and good governance of Nigeria.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOn 30 March 2017, Senator Mohammed Ndume was suspended for 90 legislative days for bringing Senator Dino Melaye, his colleague, and the institutions of the Senate into disrepute.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHowever, a Federal High Court presided over by Hon. Justice Qadiri declared the suspension unlawful and unconstitutional.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn the case of Senator Ovie Omo-Agege vs. the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the Court held that, according to Senate Rules, a senator can only be suspended for 14 days, notwithstanding the Senate\u2019s power to discipline any erring member. In that case, Ovie Omo-Agege was suspended for 90 days for filing a case challenging a Senate decision. Accordingly, the suspension of Ovie Omo-Agege was set aside.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He maintained that the suspension order is in contempt of the legal action already instituted by Senator Natasha Akpoti at the Federal High Court.<\/p>\n<p>He further noted that, under Senate Rules, when a matter is sub judice, the Senate ought not to have deliberated on it.<\/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. Former presidential aide, Chief Okoi Obono-Obla, has criticised the Senate for suspending Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan for six months over an alleged violation of Senate rules and her accusation of sexual harassment against Senate President, Dr Godswill Akpabio. Obono-Obla argued that the penalty is excessive, unjustified, and disproportionately long compared to similar cases. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":154274,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,14],"tags":[11955,254,7207],"class_list":["post-154275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-natasha","tag-nigeria","tag-obono-obla"],"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>Ex-presidential aide Obono-Obla faults Senate\u2019s six-month suspension of Natasha - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Former presidential aide, Chief Okoi Obono-Obla, has criticised the Senate for suspending Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduagha ...\" \/>\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\/ex-presidential-aide-obono-obla-faults-senates-six-month-suspension-of-natasha\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ex-presidential aide Obono-Obla faults Senate\u2019s six-month suspension of Natasha\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Former presidential aide, Chief Okoi Obono-Obla, has criticised the Senate for suspending Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduagha ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/ex-presidential-aide-obono-obla-faults-senates-six-month-suspension-of-natasha\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-03-07T17:59:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-03-19T09:13:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/03\/sm_1741361847.976063.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\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=\"1 minute\" \/>\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\/ex-presidential-aide-obono-obla-faults-senates-six-month-suspension-of-natasha#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/ex-presidential-aide-obono-obla-faults-senates-six-month-suspension-of-natasha\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Ex-presidential aide Obono-Obla faults Senate\u2019s six-month suspension of Natasha\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-03-07T17:59:23+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-03-19T09:13:18+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/ex-presidential-aide-obono-obla-faults-senates-six-month-suspension-of-natasha\"},\"wordCount\":293,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/ex-presidential-aide-obono-obla-faults-senates-six-month-suspension-of-natasha#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/03\/sm_1741361847.976063.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Natasha\",\"Nigeria\",\"Obono Obla\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/ex-presidential-aide-obono-obla-faults-senates-six-month-suspension-of-natasha#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/ex-presidential-aide-obono-obla-faults-senates-six-month-suspension-of-natasha\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/ex-presidential-aide-obono-obla-faults-senates-six-month-suspension-of-natasha\",\"name\":\"Ex-presidential aide Obono-Obla faults Senate\u2019s six-month suspension of Natasha - 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