Senator Natasha Akpoti – Uduaghan, the senator representing Kogi Central in the Nigerian senate has reported her suspension from the Nigerian senate to the United Nations Inter-parliamentary union sitting in New York in a bid to get justice.
It would be recalled that Senator Natasha was suspended for six months by the Senate committee on Ethics on the 6th of March with stringent conditions attached following a disciplinary hearing into her petition of sexual harrassment against Senator Godswill Akpabio, the president of the senate.
“I come with a heavy heart to seek help on behalf of the women of Nigeria and not to embarrass Nigeria.” She said.
While making her case, senator Natasha stated her suspension from the senate was a case of political victimisation and a representative of the systemic exclusion of women in Nigerian politics and broader cases of gender discrimination. She noted the suspension was meant to silence her voice.
She further declared the senate’s actions as an assault on democracy concluding that her case as a sitting senator shows what other women in tertiary institutions and workplaces would be worse.
