The political landscape has been shaken by the controversial six-month suspension of Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan following her allegations of sexual harassment against Senate President Godswill Akpabio.
In a scathing response, the Chairman of the Labour Party (LP) in Lagos State, Dayo Ekong, has denounced the decision, calling it a “grotesque perversion” of justice.
Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan had boldly accused Akpabio of not only sexually harassing her but also deliberately stripping her of certain legislative privileges after she rebuffed his advances.
Seeking redress, she took her grievance to the Senate’s Ethics Committee, hoping for an impartial hearing.
However, rather than securing justice, she was met with a brutal political blow the committee dismissed her petition and proceeded to silence her voice with a six-month suspension.
Ekong, deeply unsettled by the Senate’s response, lamented what she described as the muzzling of a female voice in power. In a strongly worded statement, she did not mince words:
“As Chairman of the Lagos State Labour Party, I speak with a mix of outrage and sorrow at the grievous injustice unfolding in our National Assembly. Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, a voice courageously alleging sexual harassment by Senate President Godswill Akpabio, has been suspended for six months not for her accusations to be investigated, but for daring to speak them.”
Ekong went on to condemn the Ethics Committee’s decision to dismiss the petition on technical grounds, arguing that the punishment meted out was nothing short of a systematic attempt to silence women in power.
“If a sitting senator one of only four women in a chamber of 109 can be silenced, suspended, and barred from her office for seeking accountability, what does this mean for ordinary Nigerian women? The market trader harassed by police, the student preyed upon by lecturers, the domestic worker abused with no platform to scream?”
Her words painted a grim picture of a society where institutions shield the powerful instead of protecting the vulnerable.
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The Labour Party chairwoman did not shy away from pointing fingers at those who enabled this decision, warning that history would remember those who weaponized procedural technicalities to suppress justice.
Ekong further highlighted the deep-rooted misogyny entrenched in the nation’s political system, lamenting the reduction of female representation in the Senate from four to three.
To her, this is not just a numerical loss it is a brazen assault on democracy.
“Reducing female representation from four to three senators in a nation where women endure daily indignities is not just hypocrisy—it is an assault on democracy itself.”
But Ekong made it clear that neither she nor the Labour Party in Lagos State would back down. She reaffirmed the party’s unyielding support for Senator Uduaghan’s quest for justice, stressing that the lawmaker’s suspension is not just a political maneuver but a symbol of the relentless oppression women face daily.
“To the public, we say: demand better. To institutions, we say: investigate transparently. To those in power, we say: your legacy will be defined by whether you uphold equity or entrench injustice.”
Concluding her statement, Ekong issued a clarion call to Nigerians, urging them to reject a system that punishes the victim and protects the powerful.
“We must all lend our voices to this injustice. We must create a system where no woman—whether senator or student—is silenced again.”
With these powerful words, Ekong has not only condemned the suspension but has also ignited a broader conversation about gender, power, and justice in Nigeria’s political sphere.