Leaders of the Kogi Consultative Assembly have appealed to Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan to apologise to Senate President Goodwill Akpabio over the allegations of sexual advances and others she made against him.
Members of the Assembly comprise past and present political office holders from Kogi State. They urged Natasha to take the path of honour and apologise to the Senate leadership.
Natasha had confronted the Senate President over the change in her sitting arrangement.
As the crisis degenerated, the Kogi senator accused Akpabio of making sexual advances at her. Reacting to yesterday’s situation, the Assembly thought of its convener, Hon. Kabiru Mohammed, had charged Natasha to take responsibility for her actions and refrain from acts that could tarnish her political image and endanger her rising profile.
Mohammed said, “After carefully considering the facts of the matter between our dear daughter, mother, wife, and sister, Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, and the Senate President, we realised that she was at fault, and it is only proper for us to advise her to tender an apology and end the feud as an experienced politician that she is.
“There is no need to play the ostrich and try to shift the guilt from herself. She might have acted out of ignorance or pure oversight because she is new to the system.
“As political stakeholders, we know that rules are rules, and it is not patriotic for someone of her standing to flout the Senate Standing Rules and try to cut corners by trying to implicate others. The Senate President acted within the confines of his constitutional duties, and her verbal outing was unnecessary,” Mohammed.
Mohammed further said it was highly unbecoming for a high-ranking citizen to resort to blackmail and blind vilification of the Senate President to escape accountability.
According to him, to accuse the Senate President of sexual harassment just when she had been called to order for embarrassing the Senate and the good people of Kogi State, whom she represents, was uncalled for and lame.
Mohammed continued, ‘While we are not holding brief for the Senate President, sexual harassment is a crime which should have been reported immediately if it ever happened. Why bring it now that she has been reprimanded for her undemocratic conduct? It is indeed needless to resort to blackmail at this point.
“Barring the technical considerations of the status of limitation, we urge Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan to independently follow her case against the Senate President for sexual harassment. Drawing parallels between her actions and the firm stance of the Senate President over her infractions is unacceptable”, he asserted.
The group concluded its press statement issued yesterday by pledging its members’ unalloyed support to Senator Natasha as a dependable representative and consummate politician but insisted that “an apology is all that is needed to clear the mess the senator has found herself as it will establish her as a true democrat and patriot in the Nigerian political scene.”
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