There was a mild drama in the Senate, yesterday, following a disagreement over a new sitting arrangement in which Sen Natasha AkpotiUduaghan (PDP/Kogi Central) was allocated a seat different from her previous position in the red chamber.

Enraged by the development, Akpoti-Uduaghan raised a point of order, seeking the attention of the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, on the matter; but her raised hand was not recognised by the presiding officer who promptly ruled her out of order.

Apparently not prepared to be silenced, Natasha (Akpoti-Uduaghan) took to her microphone and insisted that she must be recognised by the Senate President to air her views. “I don’t care if I am silenced, I am not afraid.

You have denied me my privilege. Mr Senate President, ever since the night-club incidence, you have deliberately silenced my voice.

“My bills have not been able to scale through to second reading. I am not afraid of being silenced, but I will do so in honour. “As a senator duly elected by my people, I chose to remain on this seat, come what may.

The worst you can do is to suspend me from this sitting and that will not stop me from contributing my quota to my constituency, the Senate and Nigeria as a whole. “Mr Senate President, I have taken a lot from you. If you don’t want me to speak publicly, I will let the whole world know how you have discriminated against me, maligned me, dehumanised me.

Your choice of words has embarrassed me, Mr President. Do what you may, I will not leave this seat,” the lawmaker said in anger. Equally enraged and disappointed by her conduct, Akpabio called on the Sergeant-at-Arms to quickly take the Kogi female lawmaker out of the chamber and prevent her from disrupting the proceedings.

This cross-fire attracted the attention of other senators in the chamber, including Leader of the Senate, Opeyemi Bamidele, who quickly intervened and prevented the Sergeant- at-Arms from effecting the arrest of Akpoti Uduaghan.

Addressing the plenary on the incident, Akpabio warned lawmakers in the red chamber to always remember to obey the rules and regulations guiding the proceedings of the parliament. “In the wisdom of the framers of the Stanading Orders of the Senate, section 6 stated that the President of the Senate shall allocate a seat to each senator at any time.

Section 6-1 and section 6-2 also say that a senator may only speak from the seat allocated to him or her. I want the public to realise that what we are doing here is not always what they think.

We are a body governed by rules and the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. “So my ruling on this issue is, please distinguished senators, do not feel offended.

Let us continue to focus on the business that brought us here, which is the Nigerian people; to provide dividends of democracy to them and move this country forward,” he said.

Chairman, Senate Services, Sunday Karimi, (APC/Kogi West), in an intervention, raised order 10 of the Senate Rule and called on Akpoti-Uduaghan to apologise for her “unruly behaviour” in the chamber.

“When I came in this morning, the first person that came to me about change of seats was Senator Natasha; she complained that her seat had been allocated to somebody else.

I said, I don’t even know about this. I don’t even know what you are talking about, but before you know, sir, Natasha shouted my name all over the place.

I’m sure my name is in the media for negative reasons today. By my upbringing, I will not shout at any woman. So, I didn’t reply her. I kept quiet. I want to say my privilege has been breached and that shouldn’t be in an assembly of this nature.

We don’t need to blackmail ourselves,” he said. The New Telegraph learnt that the new sitting arrangement and the resultant altercation was triggered by the recent defections and movement of some lawmakers, including Senator Ned Nwoko, from their former political platforms to the ruling party.