- Safiu Kehinde
The Senate has on Thursday dismissed embattled Kogi lawmaker, Sen. Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, from her role as the Chairperson of the red chamber’s committee on Diaspora and Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO).
This is coming under the heels of the Abuja Federal High Court’s ruling which ordered the recall of the lawmaker back to the legislative chamber.
NPO Reported that the court had overruled the Senate’s six-month suspension of the lawmaker representing Kogi Central Senatorial District over her altercation with the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, during a plenary session.
The presiding judge, Justice Binta Nyako, had in her judgment delivered last week, described the duration of the suspension as unduly excessive.
Nyako held that it deprives the people of Kogi Central of valid representation.
Following the verdict, Akpoti-Uduaghan had pledged to resume back to the Senate on Tuesday.
However, the lawmaker failed to appear at the plenary session.
She later disclosed in an interview that her return was stalled as result of the Certified True Copy of the judgement which she is yet to receive and also forwarded to the Senate.
While the lawmaker is yet to return to the red chamber as pledged, the Senate had at its plenary session on Thursday announced her removal as the chairperson of the Diaspora and NGO committee.
As captured in a post shared on X, the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, declared Natasha’s dismissal while announcing Akwa-Ibom lawmaker, Sen. Aniekan Bassey, as the new chairman of the committee.
“The new Chairman of the Senate Committee on Diaspora and NGOs is Distinguished Senator Aniekan Bassey. And it will take effect from today. So, we will make some changes to our Vice Chairmanship positions next week as a result of the fact that some of the Senators have two Vice Chairmanship positions with some having three while others do not have.” Akpabio declared.
While no reason was given for her dismissal, the change is reportedly believed to have borne out of her unresolved suspension.