Allow Natasha to resume after suspension expires, Lawyer urges NASS

ABUJA — A lawyer, Teejani Jimoh, Esq., has urged the National Assembly to let Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan to resume her Senate duties aft the expiry of a six-month suspension imposed connected March 6, 2025.

In a statement, Jimoh noted that the suspension lapsed connected September 6, 2025, and said the clerk’s bureau had told the legislator she could not instrumentality due to the fact that the substance is pending astatine the Court of Appeal.

Jimoh argued that, absent a tribunal bid staying the senator’s return, the expiry of a fixed-term suspension should licence her resumption of duties.

“In our view, the fixed suspension imposed connected March 6 had expired by September 6. A pending entreaty astatine the Court of Appeal, without a circumstantial enactment order, does not automatically forestall her from resuming,” Jimoh said.

Jimoh cited past judicial rulings that examined lengthy legislative suspensions and said those precedents enactment the rule that constituents should not beryllium near without practice for extended periods.

He besides referenced a July 2025 Federal High Court ruling successful which a justice described the six-month suspension arsenic excessive; that judgement did not, however, bid an contiguous recall.

The lawyer said helium was appealing to the National Assembly to springiness effect to the expiry of the suspension and let the courts to find the legality of the archetypal enactment connected its merits. He added that allowing the legislator to instrumentality would not pre-judge the pending appeal.

The station Allow Natasha to resume aft suspension expires, Lawyer urges NASS appeared archetypal connected Vanguard News.