The Secretary-General of Afenifere, the Yoruba Socio-Political Organisation, Chief Olusola Ebiseeni, has described the Senate’s decision on the resumption of Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan after serving her six-month suspension as the most petty, oppressive, distasteful, and unacceptable to the majority of Nigerians
Speaking with journalists on Thursday at Akure, the Ondo State capital, Ebiseni said the circumstances surrounding the suspension of the Kogi West Senator and the sledgehammer sanction left much to be desired.
According to him, “At the end of the six-month suspension term on the 6th of September, the cause of the action in court has become otiose, the trial of which has become at best a mere academic exercise which the court does not waste its precious judicial time on.
“It is an embarrassing misuse of language to still describe the subject of such action as subjudice”.
He added, “The Senate is no doubt, by its composition, dominated by senior citizens, elder statesmen, holders of high-level positions in the Republic, and respectable personalities. To all intents and purposes, the handling of the Natasha saga from the very beginning left much to be desired.
“The present decision is far beneath the status and stature of the Senate and its members. It reeks of pettiness, which portrays Nigeria as a banana Republic.
“The Senate should pronounce and was only mildly discountenanced by the Federal High Court Abuja, which described the rule under which the six-month suspension was meted out as excessive, only in deference to the principle of separation of powers.
“Thus, the decision to refuse her resumption, even having served the excessive penalty on the untenable ground that the subject matter is still a subject of litigation, is distasteful and oppressive not only of the Senator but the good people of Kogi Central who have been denied their constitutional representation at the Senate”.
Ebiseeni said the Senate, as the apex chamber of the nation’s legislature, should be wary of creating an obnoxious precedent such that the sub-national Assemblies may climb now or in the future.
He said, “We hope that Governor Sim Fubara of Rivers State would not be soon told that he could not resume because of the pending suit by the PDP Governors”.
