By: Chioma Madonna Ndukwu
The controversy surrounding Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan’s suspension has taken a new turn, with allegations that the signatures on the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges, and Public Petitions’ report were not meant to endorse the suspension, but were taken from the attendance register.
Some senators have now distanced themselves from the report, claiming their signatures were misused to create the false impression of unanimous support for the suspension.
On March 5, during the Senate Committee on Ethics meeting, senators signed the attendance register, but some chose to abstain from signing.
According to Senate rules, all senators can attend committee meetings, regardless of whether they are members. “All the senators who attend a committee’s meeting can sign the attendance register,” explained a source.
However, when committee chairman Neda Imasuen presented the report on March 6, it included signatures from the attendance register, which suggested that all signatories supported the committee’s recommendations.
One senator, who attended the meeting but asked not to be named, criticized the process, saying, “The proper process should have been for the committee members to review and approve the report before it was presented.”
As a result, some senators now claim they were unaware of the report’s contents before it was made public.
The Senate then voted to suspend Akpoti-Uduaghan for six months, following the ethics committee’s recommendation for her alleged misconduct during a plenary session on February 20, where she allegedly ignored seating arrangements.
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