The National Secretary of the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC), High Chief Peter Ameh, has strongly criticized the Senate for preventing Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan from resuming her duties after her six-month suspension expired, warning that the move undermines democracy and could push Nigeria toward a one-party system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ameh accused Senate President Godswill Akpabio of abusing power to settle personal scores, stating that the action deprives the people of Kogi Central of representation. He lamented how democracy is being hijacked by those who according to him not understand democratic freedom of expression and the right of every constituency to be represented.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe Senate President and every Senator are equals under the Constitution. To use the authority of the chamber to settle personal scores is a dangerous abuse of power,” he stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Akpoti-Uduaghan, who represents Kogi Central, was suspended on March 6 for alleged gross misconduct. Although she formally notified the Clerk of the National Assembly on September 4 that her suspension had lapsed, the Acting Clerk, Dr. Yahaya Danzaria, responded that the matter remains before the Court of Appeal and no administrative action can be taken until the court concludes its process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ameh rejected this justification, emphasizing that the suspension had a definite timeline. He also criticized the judiciary for delays, saying, \u201cThe courts are enabling tutelary tyranny by refusing to set a strong precedent against the suspension of elected lawmakers by their peers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ameh called for Akpoti-Uduaghan\u2019s immediate reinstatement, cautioning that silencing constituencies sets a dangerous precedent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOur democracy is not served when a whole senatorial district is silenced because of political disagreements within the chamber,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The National Secretary of the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC), High Chief Peter Ameh, has strongly criticized the Senate for preventing Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan from resuming her duties after her six-month suspension expired, warning that the move undermines democracy and could push Nigeria toward a one-party system. Ameh accused Senate President Godswill Akpabio of abusing power to settle personal scores, stating that the action deprives the people of Kogi Central of representation. He lamented how democracy is being hijacked by those who according to him not understand democratic freedom of expression and the right of every constituency to be represented. \u201cThe Senate President and every Senator are equals under the Constitution. To use the authority of the chamber to settle personal scores is a dangerous abuse of power,” he stated. Akpoti-Uduaghan, who represents Kogi Central, was suspended on March 6 for alleged gross misconduct. Although she formally notified the Clerk of the National Assembly on September 4 that her suspension had lapsed, the Acting Clerk, Dr. Yahaya Danzaria, responded that the matter remains before the Court of Appeal and no administrative action can be taken until the court concludes its process. Ameh rejected this justification, emphasizing that the suspension had a definite timeline. He also criticized the judiciary for delays, saying, \u201cThe courts are enabling tutelary tyranny by refusing to set a strong precedent against the suspension of elected lawmakers by their peers.\u201d Ameh called for Akpoti-Uduaghan\u2019s immediate reinstatement, cautioning that silencing constituencies sets a dangerous precedent. \u201cOur democracy is not served when a whole senatorial district is silenced because of political disagreements within the chamber,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23678,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26873","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=26873"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26873\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26874,"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26873\/revisions\/26874"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}