Locked in a Standoff: Between Senator Natasha, Senate and Nigeria’s democracy
By Shalom KASIM
A mild drama unfolded on Tuesday, 22 July 2025, when the Senator representing Kogi Central, Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, decided to make good on her promise by showing up at the gates of the National Assembly to reclaim her seat.
Natasha, who is currently on a six-month suspension for “gross misconduct”, arrived at the national assembly complex alongside popular activist Aisha Yesufu and other bold supporters.
However, she could not go far before her convoy was stopped by security personnel at the National Assembly premises. This made the senator and her team alight from their vehicles and march into the NASS complex on foot.
Speaking to journalists moments later, Natasha called the actions of the Senate under President Godswill Akpabio a clear disregard for the court.
READ ALSO: Senator Natasha treks into NASS after being denied entry (Video)
She said “Akpabio cannot be greater than the Nigerian Constitution. I want Nigerians to know that the Office of the Senate President doesn’t give me legitimacy as a senator. I got my legitimacy as a senator from the people of Kogi who voted me into office as senator,” she said.
“That I’ve been denied entrance to the National Assembly is a statement being made. It’s on record that the National Assembly under Akpabio has decided to be in contempt of court’s decision, and it’s quite ironic that they are lawmakers, she added.
Asked what would come next, she signalled that the battle would move from the chambers’ locked gates back into the courts. “Going forward, I will have a meeting with my legal team so they can proceed to the appellate court to seek an interpretation of what just happened. I’m a law-abiding citizen.”
READ ALSO: IGP Egbetokun denies senator Natasha police protection ahead of senate resumption
What happened
On 6 March 2025, the Nigerian Senate formally suspended Senator Natasha for six months. The official reason was “acts of misconduct,” specifically that she allegedly defied standing orders by refusing to sit in her assigned seat, speaking without recognition, and making allegations that the Senate leadership claimed were false and damaging to its integrity.
This decision came immediately after she submitted a petition accusing the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, of sexual harassment. The petition was first rejected because she signed it herself, which violated the Senate’s rule that such motions must be sponsored or co-signed by another senator or a group of constituents.
Akpoti‑Uduaghan re-submitted the petition with signatures from her constituents, insisting that her claim deserved a formal investigation under Senate ethics rules.
The Senate’s Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions, however, moved to recommend that she be barred from the chamber for half a year. The Senate adopted the recommendation in full, suspending her allowances, legislative entitlements, and official security detail.
READ ALSO: Recall Natasha without delay, Falana warns senate
Her removal reduced the number of women in Nigeria’s 109-member Senate to just four.
After her suspension, Natasha Akpoti‑Uduaghan immediately took her fight to the courts.
In late March 2025, she filed a lawsuit at the Federal High Court in Abuja, asking the court to declare her six-month suspension unconstitutional. Her argument was that the Nigerian Senate does not have absolute power to suspend an elected senator for raising allegations or for speaking out, and that her suspension effectively denied the people of Kogi Central representation.
As Natasha’s legal fight stretched through the courts, her opponents back home in Kogi Central tried the recall clause weapon. Under Section 69 of Nigeria’s Constitution, a senator can be recalled if more than half of all registered voters in their district sign a valid petition demanding it, and if INEC verifies every name before conducting a referendum.
READ ALSO: Senate removes Natasha as diaspora committee chairman
In late March 2025, a group styling as the Concerned Kogi Youths and Women announced it had launched a drive to remove Natasha. By the end of April, the group claimed to have collected 208,132 signatures/thumbprints, citing her “self-inflicted absence” and “disrespect for the Senate” as justification.
However, INEC responded by saying that the total number of registered voters in the Kogi Central Senatorial District is 474,554; therefore, more than one-half of this figure (i.e. 50%+1) is needed to pass this condition. The 208,132 signatures collected fell short by 29,146. Consequently, the petition was dropped.
On 4 July 2025, the Federal High Court in Abuja delivered its ruling. The court ruled that the six-month suspension was excessive and violated her constituents’ right to representation, ordering that she be reinstated immediately.
However, the court also found that Natasha had breached a gag order by publicly discussing certain details of the proceedings while the case was active. For that, the judge convicted her of contempt of court and imposed a ₦5 million fine.
READ ALSO: Court orders immediate recall of suspended senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan
In response, she declared that the reinstatement confirmed that the Senate had acted outside the law and reaffirmed her right to resume her seat immediately. “I have pretty much two months more before the six months expire. However, I have written to the Senate again telling them that I’m resuming on the 22nd, which is on Tuesday, by the special grace of God,” the senator said.
However, the Senate leadership countered that it had not formally received the certified judgment and insisted that the chamber would appeal the ruling if necessary. They also warned that any attempt by her to force her way onto the floor without due procedure could lead to further disciplinary measures.
Natasha’s political, legal battles
This is not the first time Senator Natasha has found herself at the doorstep of an institution that did not want her inside.
Just over a year earlier, she had clawed her way into the Senate through a legal battle that overturned the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) initial declaration of her opponent, Senator Abubakar Ohere as the winner of the Kogi Central Senatorial District election. A tribunal, and later the Court of Appeal, affirmed her victory in October 2023, making her the first woman to ever represent Kogi Central in Nigeria’s Senate.
Born on December 9, 1979, Natasha Hadiza Akpoti-Uduaghan has spent most of her adult life orbiting power but rarely seated comfortably within it. Her father, Dr. Jimoh Abdul Akpoti, was an influential figure in his own right, a community leader, philanthropist, and founder of Ajaokuta Steel Company’s host community’s first hospital.
READ ALSO: Senator Natasha triumphs as Appeal Court dismisses Akpabio’s motions, imposes ₦100,000 fine
She earned her law degree from the University of Abuja in 2004, then called to the Nigerian Bar in 2005, and went on to get a master’s degree in gas and oil law from the University of Dundee in Scotland.
In 2015, she burst into the national conversation when she authored an investigative report on corruption and inefficiency at the Ajaokuta Steel Company. Her presentation at the National Assembly that year was a rare spectacle for a young, unelected woman standing before lawmakers. It earned her equal parts admiration and enemies. By 2018, the lawyer-turned-activist declared to run for governor of Kogi State under the Social Democratic Party (SDP), but she lost.
In 2019, she ran again, this time for Senate. She lost narrowly to Smart Adeyemi of the All Progressives Congress (APC). In 2023, she came back swinging. Backed by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and a swelling base of voters, Natasha ran for the Kogi Central Senatorial seat against Abubakar Ohere of the APC.
The contest was fierce and marred by violence and allegations of vote-rigging. When the Independent National Electoral Commission declared Ohere the winner, she went to court. The tribunal agreed with her, and later the Court of Appeal, in October 2023, affirmed it; the seat was hers.
The gender factor
Nigeria’s National Assembly has never crossed 5% female representation since 1999 (lower than Ghana, Sierra Leone, Liberia, or even South Sudan). In the 10th Senate, it is about 3.6%: four women out of 109 men.
The constitutional questions
First, the basics: Under Section 68(1) of the Constitution, a senator’s seat can become vacant if they resign in writing, switch parties without cause, are recalled by constituents, are convicted of certain crimes, or if they die, among other conditions. Nowhere does the Constitution explicitly say that the National Assembly can suspend a member so completely that they can’t represent their district for half a year.
In 2018, in the Melaye v. National Assembly case, the court ruled that while the National Assembly can punish disorderly conduct, it cannot suspend an elected legislator for so long that it effectively deprives an entire constituency of representation. Courts have repeatedly held that the right to representation belongs to the people, not the chamber.
So why did Natasha still get suspended for six months? Because in practice, the Standing Orders can be used as a blunt instrument. The Senate argues it must have the power to maintain order and to punish what it deems serious misconduct. They say the Constitution does not strip them of that right. In Natasha’s case, they cited her petition and how she “disrupted proceedings” and refused “lawful instructions” to sit in an assigned seat, a technical breach that, on paper, actually justified disciplinary action.
Nigeria’s doctrine of separation of powers says that the judiciary interprets the law, not the legislature, but the Senate’s argument is that parliamentary privilege shields it from external interference in its internal affairs, especially disciplinary matters.
Senator Natasha may be legally reinstated, but is practically locked in a standoff. For now, the Senate argues that they must first receive the certified true copy of the judgment. If the Senate decides to appeal, the case could drag through the Court of Appeal and, potentially, the Supreme Court. This would keep her in a grey zone for months.
If the Senate physically bars her from entering the chamber despite the court’s order (which is what we have seen so far), the situation could turn into a direct test of state power: who enforces a judge’s ruling when the defendant is the Senate itself?
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