A Federal High Court in Abuja presided over by Justice Binta Nyako, today, ordered that the Nigerian Senate to immediately recall the suspended Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan to the red chamber, stressing that her suspension for six months was legislative excessiveness.
Delivering his judgement, Nyako who noted that the suspension is unconstitutional, described the duration of the suspension as “excessive” and without a clear legal foundation.
According to the court, both Chapter 8 of the Senate Standing Orders and Section 14 of the Legislative Houses (Powers and Privileges) Act, which the upper chamber relied upon, do not stipulate a maximum suspension period. As such, they were deemed overreaching in this case.
The judge pointed out that since the National Assembly is only required to sit for 181 days in a legislative year, suspending a lawmaker for roughly that same length of time effectively silences the voice of an entire constituency.
According to her, “While the Senate has the authority to discipline its members, such sanctions must not go so far as to deny constituents their right to representation.”
However, the court supported Senate President, Godswill Akpabio’s position that his refusal to allow Akpoti-Uduaghan to speak during a plenary, on the grounds that she was not seated in her designated chair, did not amount to a violation of her rights.
The judge dismissed the Senate President’s argument that the judiciary had no business interfering in what he called an “internal affair” of the legislature, stating that fundamental rights and representation are matters squarely within the court’s purview.
Nevertheless, the court found Akpoti-Uduagan of contempt of court and imposed a N5million penalty on her for breaching a prior court directive that barred both parties from making public statements about the ongoing legal matter before the court.
