In a significant development, the Senate leadership has ordered the unsealing of Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan’s office, marking a potential breakthrough in a months-long political standoff that has drawn widespread criticism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The directive was carried out on Tuesday by Alabi Adedeji, Deputy Director of Sergeant-at-Arms, who stated in an official video: “I, Alabi Adedeji, Deputy Director, Sergeant-at-Arms, National Assembly, having been directed to unseal the office of Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, hereby unseal the office.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The move follows intense pressure from both within and outside the legislative chamber after Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan’s six-month suspension expired in September. Senate spokesperson Yemi Adaramodu offered a characteristically brief confirmation: “If something was sealed before and now unsealed, it means it has been unsealed.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The prolonged exclusion of the Kogi Central representative has drawn sharp criticism from legal experts. Senior Advocate of Nigeria Mike Ozekhome condemned the action as “an affront to representative democracy,” emphasizing that “you cannot punish a constituency because of a legislator.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Senate maintains the suspension stemmed from procedural violations, though the timing following her allegations against Senate President Godswill Akpabio has fueled controversy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In a significant development, the Senate leadership has ordered the unsealing of Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan’s office, marking a potential breakthrough in a months-long political standoff that has drawn widespread criticism. The directive was carried out on Tuesday by Alabi Adedeji, Deputy Director of Sergeant-at-Arms, who stated in an official video: “I, Alabi Adedeji, Deputy Director, Sergeant-at-Arms, National Assembly, having been directed to unseal the office of Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, hereby unseal the office.” The move follows intense pressure from both within and outside the legislative chamber after Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan’s six-month suspension expired in September. Senate spokesperson Yemi Adaramodu offered a characteristically brief confirmation: “If something was sealed before and now unsealed, it means it has been unsealed.” The prolonged exclusion of the Kogi Central representative has drawn sharp criticism from legal experts. Senior Advocate of Nigeria Mike Ozekhome condemned the action as “an affront to representative democracy,” emphasizing that “you cannot punish a constituency because of a legislator.” The Senate maintains the suspension stemmed from procedural violations, though the timing following her allegations against Senate President Godswill Akpabio has fueled controversy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23678,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27050","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\/27050","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=27050"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27050\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27051,"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27050\/revisions\/27051"}],"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=27050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fctnewsgazette.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}