The Senate has made it clear that it will not reinstate Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan until it receives and examines the Certified True Copy (CTC) of the court judgement on her case with Senate President, Godswill Akpabio.
The Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Sen. Yemi Adaramodu, stated this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Abuja.
“The Senate had applied for the CTC since Monday. We expect to get the document, and once we get it, we are going to comply with the content of the court order.
“But first, the Senate will sit and consider the contents of the CTC, and when we look at the contents, then we shall take a position,’’ he said.
Adaramodu noted with concern that some Nigerians were fanning the Akpoti-Uduaghan matter out of their low level of understanding of the workings of the Senate.
He said, “The Senate, by law, is empowered to make its rules that guide it. If we don’t have rules guiding us, we will become like barbarians. If there is no rule on seating, it means that early in the morning, I can wake up and say I want to sit where the president of the Senate is sitting because he is my colleague, and that will turn the whole place into chaos and pandemonium.
“It was on the strength of the aforesaid that the court recently averred in the case between Natasha and Akpabio that there are rules and that the Senate is constitutional empowered to make rules that will guide its activities.
“It was for this that we have Standing Orders. And enforcing the orders means that anybody that contravenes it, the aggregated whole chamber of the senate can reprimand such a person.”
He also expressed regret that, despite the court ruling, some people continued to say something else.
“Possibly, what they were expecting was that anybody can disobey; anybody can break any rule and that the Senate must not take any stand,’’ he said.
He stated that if the Senate has the authority to reprimand an erring senator, and there is no specific provision in its rules regarding the duration—whether in days or hours—for such a suspension, then it is within the Senate’s discretion to determine the length of the punishment.
“Whoever that is not a legislator cannot understand how the legislature works,” he said.
The senator, representing Ekiti South Senatorial District, explained that the 180-day suspension handed down to Akpoti-Uduaghan included non-parliamentary days.
“What the Senate rules say is that you should observe, adhere to and fulfil the 180 parliamentary days,’’ he said.
