28th February 2025, NewsOrient, News, Law And Society, Lifestyle, Politics, Governance And Development

Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan has alleged that Senate President Godswill Akpabio is against her because she refused to have sex with him.
But Senator Ireti Kingibe, has reacted to the controversy over seating rearrangement at the Red Chamber by saying Senator Natasha did not follow Senate rules.

Natasha made this allegation of sexual harassment in an interview on Arise TV on Friday morning even as she said she has proof to back her allegations.

She said even her husband can confirm her allegations.

According to the senator, she has “printed screenshots of conversations between her and Senate President Akpabio. So, she challenged the Department of State Services (DSS) to extract details of their conversation “because he was always calling me on WhatsApp.”

Natasha’s words: “My issue with Akpabio started on 8th of December, 2023 when myself and my husband visited Akwa Ibom for Senator Akpabio’s birthday. Akpabio was showing me around his house and was holding my hands with my husband following behind us when he said, he wants me to come and be spending special moments in his house.

My husband heard him and later told me not to travel abroad alone or be with the Senate President alone.

“In February, I wanted to move a motion for the investigation on the ills of the corrupt practice in a Ajaokuta steel company. I listed that motion five times. It was the sixth time that it was listed on the order paper that was approved. Many senators can testify to that.

“Before the motion made the order paper, I went to the Senate President in his office, and I said, Senate President,’ you know how important this Ajaokuta Steel Company is to me, you know how important it is to my people and to Nigerians. I’ve noticed that you have stepped down this motion’.

“As a matter of fact, a number of senators told me to see him and plead with him so that he would take it. I was like, ‘sir, please, why can’t you take this motion? It’s very important’ Then, it was listed the third time and stepped down.

“He then said, ‘Natasha, I’m the Chief Presiding Officer of the Senate, you can enjoy a whole lot if you take care of me. Make me happy’. At that point, I said, ‘Sir, I’ll pretend that I didn’t hear this’. He said, ‘well, the ball is in your court’. I left his office

“My case is a case of a student being punished by a lecturer for refusing to sleep with him,” she said.

Reacting to the controversy, Senator Ireti Kingibe, representing the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), has countered Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan’s claim about the seating reassignment in the Senate.

She said the three other female senators have been silent about the seating arrangement row because they don’t want to say anything negative about Natasha.

She said: “Silence is golden, especially when one of us is not following the rules, and as women, we did not want to come out publicly to say anything negative about her, and we were hoping all of this will blow over, as a lot of things do,” the Labour Party Senator said.

She added, “The Senate is not a place where we are supposed to fight over trivialities like seating arrangements.”

According to Kingibe, Natasha was not the only lawmaker whose seat was moved. She disclosed that other lawmakers were affected by the seating reassignment.

“This is about the rules of the Senate. So if I can point out that other women have been moved several times on that day, I wasn’t there, but I gathered that several men were also moved,” she said.

NewsOrient reports that Senator Natasha and Senator Akpabio’s face-off recently peaked when the Senate President almost ordered that Natasha be bundled out of the Red Chamber during plenary, following Natasha’s refusal to accept a sudden change of her sitting position.

Source: Arise TV

~ Published By NewsOrient Network

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