The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has condemned what it described as a deliberate attempt by Senate President Godswill Akpabio and the Clerk of the National Assembly to stop Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan from resuming her seat in the Senate.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, September 9, by its National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, the opposition party said the move was a “blatant violation of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) and the Standing Rules of the Senate.”
“The Peoples Democratic Party condemns in the strongest terms possible, the attempt by the Clerk of the National Assembly to bar Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan from resuming at the Senate after the unjust six months suspension imposed on her by the Senate President, Senator Godswill Akpabio,” the statement read.
According to the PDP, “This reported action by the Clerk of the National Assembly smacks of a calculated attempt being orchestrated by the Senator Akpabio-led All Progressives Congress (APC) Senate leadership to abridge the right of representation of the people of Kogi Central Senatorial District and deny them a voice at the highest law-making body in the country.”
The party said the continued punishment of Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan, despite a court ruling in her favour, was “highly provocative and constitutes a clear and present danger to democracy and overall stability of our country.”
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It further argued that the matter “comes as part of the antics being deployed severally by the APC-controlled Senate and the Federal Government to suffocate the opposition which further confirms the creeping totalitarianism in our country under the APC government.”
The PDP called on Senate President Akpabio to “come clean on the various allegations instead of seeking to use the National Assembly establishment to further harass, intimidate and keep Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan away from the Senate.”
It also urged the Clerk of the National Assembly to withdraw the letter maintaining the suspension and “play by the rules by being neutral as a bureaucrat and not allow himself to be politically entangled and used as a tool to undermine democracy and the Rule of Law in the National Assembly and Nigeria.”
The PDP concluded by charging Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan to resume her duties and called on the international community and rights groups to condemn what it described as “an unwarranted renewed attack on Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan.”