Human rights lawyer Inibehe Effiong has accused the Senate President, Senator Godswill Akpabio of pursuing a personal vendetta against Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan.
Akpoti-Uduaghan, who was suspended six months ago by the Senate, served a notice to the Clerk of the National Assembly of her planned resumption following the expiration of her suspension. But in a surprised twist, the Senate, through the Clerk, says her resumption will be deferred until all pending court cases are cleared.
Effiong, who was a guest on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Tuesday, says the action of the Senate in denying Natasha the right to resume after serving out her six months suspension, is evidently an act of lawlessness.
He said the lawsuit in question upon which the Senate was relying on, even predates Natasha’s suspension.
Effiong explained that the Senate resolution that suspended Natasha for six months, came with a precondition that the duration could be reduced or lifted if she apologised. He wondered how a pending court case is now been used to block her return.
Hear him: “She had preemptively challenged the processes which crystallized in her suspension. So if the Senate, in their own wisdom, felt that it was possible to even recall her without her having to serve or exhaust the tenure of the suspension, namely six months, by giving her a condition which she elected not to satisfy, what is not debated in law, What is not debated in morality, what is not debated in common sense, is for anybody to say that having served the term of a suspension, that the Senate can now say that because there is an ongoing appeal process at the Court of Appeal challenging the legality of the tenure or the suspension that she has fully served, therefore they can hide under the cloak of subjudice and say they are not going to recall her.”
Effiong said the action of the Senate was embarrassing.
“I find it very disparaging of the sensibility of the Nigerian people because it is simple. You cannot say that somebody who has served punishment apportioned to her exhaustively, having now served for six months, the issue of suspension has elapsed the operation of law. Suspension no longer exists.
“And the Court has made it clear in a plethora of cases that parliament cannot suspend a member indefinitely. But if you go by their skewed, by their diabolical logic, it will mean that if the Court of Appeal gives a decision tomorrow on the first appeal by the Senate president and the appeal by Natasha, and either party chooses to further appeal to the Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court decided that they are not going to decide the appeal till 2027, the Senate is telling Nigerians that Natasha will not resume her legislative functions. I find this very preposterous. But I am not surprised.
“I am not surprised at all. Let’s take this issue one after the other. In law, the processes are very straightforward.
“You see, what I find very fascinating in this argument is that this is a fabricated controversy. This is a controversy that has been invented by the Senate. It doesn’t really exist in the real sense.
“It is particularly, you know, very outrageous that the Senate president happens to be a lawyer. Natasha is also a lawyer.
“Let’s play the role of the devil’s advocate. Okay, there is an appeal process, an appellate process going on, right? And you are saying on the basis of subjudice, you cannot allow her to review her legislative functions. As at the 6th of March when the Senate suspended Natasha, was there no action in court? Did Natasha not go to court to seek an order or even restrain the Senate from suspending her? That is the first question.
“The second question is, what is the substance of the appeal? The substance of the appeal relates to the legality and the conditionality of the six-month suspension, which has now elapsed by a function of time, which has now run its course. The person penalised having served that tenure, because what they are doing now amounts to a double jeopardy.
“Let me give you an example. It is like saying that somebody who has been tried in a court, convicted for a simple offence, sentenced to six months, remanded in the Maximum Custodial Centre, the person served six months, but because the person is aggrieved by the conviction and the remand and the order putting the person in custody, the person has gone on appeal. Will the Nigerian Correctional Service now say that because this inmate, this prisoner, who has now exhausted the term of conviction, having served out the term, because that person has chosen to challenge the propriety of the conviction and the appeal is pending, therefore we are still going to hold you in our facility because it is subjudiced? This is the kind of witchcraft logic, that the Senate is putting forward. It doesn’t make sense.
“A third-year law student would know better. For the institution of the Senate to be desecrated in this manner, for Senator Akpabio to use the office of the Senate President to pursue what is now demonstrably a personal vendetta, it now calls to question whether really was there a modicum of veracity in what Natasha said. If she lied about her allegation against the Senate President, if all she said was false, why is the government not allowing time and history to vindicate it? How come that even after this woman has served her punishment, you are still saying she cannot resume her functions? There is no further resolution of the Senate saying that her duration of suspension has been extended.
“What they are doing is the height of stupidity. The height of stupidity. If she has to go back to court, maybe she doesn’t have to be the author.
“I hope she doesn’t have to get to the past. Because the Senate is a cross-legislative body. Let Natasha go and resume her legislative functions.
“The letter from the clerk, notwithstanding, the part on which that correspondence is written by the clerk has more value than the content itself. That paper, that paper that they used to communicate their abominable decision to her is worthless as far as I’m concerned. It is provocative. And we cannot simply continue this way.”
