Ezekwesili Condemns Extension Of Senator Natasha’s Suspension From Senate

A erstwhile Minister of Education and nationalist argumentation advocate, Dr Oby Ezekwesili has criticised the Senate implicit what she described arsenic the unconstitutional hold of the six-month suspension play of Kogi Central lawmaker, Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan.

Ezekwesili, successful a connection titled: “A Memo to the Nigerian Senate, Judiciary and Fellow Citizens,” connected Wednesday successful Abuja, condemned the Senate’s determination to widen the lawmaker’s suspension indefinitely contempt a Federal High Court ruling declaring the archetypal six-month punishment “excessive” and unconstitutional.

She recalled that Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan was suspended connected March 6, 2025, aft accusing Senate President Godswill Akpabio of intersexual harassment.

Ezekwesili argued that alternatively than analyse the allegation transparently, the Senate turned its machinery against the lawmaker — a determination she described arsenic “an unprecedented battle connected law principles, judicial authority, and the precise foundations of our antiauthoritarian institutions.”

The erstwhile Minister’s disapproval followed a September 4, 2025, missive from the Acting Clerk of the National Assembly, informing Akpoti-Uduaghan that her suspension remained successful spot indefinitely, pending the result of her entreaty successful court.

Ezekwesili described the missive arsenic a law crisis, adding, “The Senate justifies this illegality with the preposterous assertion that the substance remains sub judice. That reasoning is fundamentally flawed. They cannot usage pending litigation arsenic justification to prolong an unconstitutional suspension”.

Ezekwesili pointed retired that the Federal High Court, presided implicit by Justice Binta Nyako, had earlier ruled that the six-month suspension was excessive and violated the Constitution.

She stressed that excluding a lawmaker from the Senate for six months — erstwhile the National Assembly sits for lone 181 days successful a twelvemonth — efficaciously disenfranchises her constituents.

Corroborating the tribunal ruling, Ezekwesili further argued that the Senate’s enactment violates its ain interior rules, which let for suspensions of nary much than 14 days nether Order 67(4).

She reminded Nigerians that tribunal rulings successful 2017 and 2018 had already declared semipermanent suspensions of lawmakers unconstitutional.

“The numbers archer a stark story,” she noted. “181 sitting days successful a year. Six months and counting of suspension. That means Kogi Central constituents person been denied implicit 100% of their close to representation.”

Ezekwesili warned that judicial inconsistencies person emboldened the legislature to disregard the law.

She called connected the Chief Justice of Nigeria and the National Judicial Council (NJC) to enactment swiftly and bring the lawsuit to a close, stressing that the credibility of the judiciary is connected the line.

“The fastest decision of the Akpoti-Uduaghan lawsuit is imperative for the courts to beryllium to Nigerians that they are not complicit successful undermining the regularisation of law,” she added.