Justice Binta Nyako of the Federal High Court, Abuja, has ordered the Senate to recall the suspended Kogi Central Senator, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan.
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Delivering judgment, Justice Nyako described as excessive the six-month suspension that was imposed on the lawmaker by the Senate.
The judge faulted the provision of Chapter 8 of the Senate Standing Rules as well as Section 14 of the Legislative Houses, Powers & Privileges Act, declaring both as overreaching.
The court also held that Senate President Godswill Akpabio was not wrong to have denied Senator Natasha, who was not in the official seat that was allotted to her, the opportunity to speak during plenary. The court asked her to apologise to the Senate.
Justice Nyako added that the two legislations failed to specify the maximum period that a serving lawmaker could be suspended from office.
According to the court, since lawmakers have a total of 181 days to sit in every legislative cycle, the six-month suspension handed to Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan was the same as pushing her away from her responsibilities to her constituents for about 180 days.
It held that though the Senate has the power to punish any of its members who err, such sanction must not be excessive to deprive the constituents of their right to be represented.
Justice Nyako equally dismissed Akpabio’s contention that the court lacked the jurisdiction to entertain the suit, which he said bordered on an internal affair of the Senate.
Earlier in the ruling, the court awarded a N5 million fine against Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan for acting in breach of its order that barred the parties from making public statements about the subject matter of the suit.
It further ordered her to within seven days, publish an apology to it in two national dailies.
Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan is also facing two separate cases of cybercrime and defamation in two separate courts in the nation’s capital.
