The Nigerian Senate has firmly cautioned suspended Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan against attempting to resume legislative duties prematurely, following her public declaration to return to the Red Chamber on Tuesday based on a court judgment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a statement released Sunday by Senate Spokesperson Senator Yemi Adaramodu, the legislative body clarified that “there is no subsisting court order mandating the Senate to recall Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan before the expiration of her suspension.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Senate emphasized that Justice Binta Nyako’s Federal High Court ruling merely provided “a non-binding advisory” suggesting potential Standing Orders amendments, while explicitly upholding the Senate’s disciplinary authority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The Court… explicitly held that the Senate did not breach any law or constitutional provision in imposing the disciplinary measure based on the Senator’s misconduct during plenary.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The same court found Akpoti-Uduaghan guilty of contempt and imposed penalties, including a \u20a65m fine payable to the Federal Government and a mandatory apology in two national newspapers and on her Facebook page.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Senate expressed astonishment at Akpoti-Uduaghan’s planned return while her appeal remains pending: “It is therefore surprising and legally untenable that Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan… is attempting to act upon an imaginary order of recall that does not exist.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The statement concluded with a firm directive: “Until [due process concludes], she is respectfully advised to stay away from the Senate chambers.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Nigerian Senate has firmly cautioned suspended Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan against attempting to resume legislative duties prematurely, following her public declaration to return to the Red Chamber on Tuesday based on a court judgment. In a statement released Sunday by Senate Spokesperson Senator Yemi Adaramodu, the legislative body clarified that “there is no subsisting court order mandating the Senate to recall Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan before the expiration of her suspension.” The Senate emphasized that Justice Binta Nyako’s Federal High Court ruling merely provided “a non-binding advisory” suggesting potential Standing Orders amendments, while explicitly upholding the Senate’s disciplinary authority. “The Court… explicitly held that the Senate did not breach any law or constitutional provision in imposing the disciplinary measure based on the Senator’s misconduct during plenary.” “The same court found Akpoti-Uduaghan guilty of contempt and imposed penalties, including a \u20a65m fine payable to the Federal Government and a mandatory apology in two national newspapers and on her Facebook page.” The Senate expressed astonishment at Akpoti-Uduaghan’s planned return while her appeal remains pending: “It is therefore surprising and legally untenable that Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan… is attempting to act upon an imaginary order of recall that does not exist.” The statement concluded with a firm directive: “Until [due process concludes], she is respectfully advised to stay away from the Senate chambers.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25129,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-parliamentary-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26123"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26123\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26124,"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26123\/revisions\/26124"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/25129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}