Natasha doesn’t follow Senate rules -Kingibe

By George Okereke

Chairperson of the Senate Committe on Women Affairs, Senator Ireti Kingibe, has carpeted the Kogi Senator, Natasha Akpoti, saying she doesn’t follow the Senate rules.

Senator Kingibe stated this  while appearing on Arise TV on Friday, in reaction to Natasha’s claim about the seating arrangement in the Senate.

Recall that Natasha had  confronted the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, on the floor of the upper legislative chamber, alleging that the rearrangement of seats was an attempt at further suppressing her.

She also appeared on Arise Television programme on Friday morning where she alleged that Akpabio was oppressing her and making her unable to function as a Senator because she had refused to accept his love proposals.

The Senate President had earlier referred her case to the Ethics Committeee before the allegations of suppression and sexual harassment surfaced on the television show, eliciting widespread debate.

Reacting to the allegations of seat rearangement, however, Senator Kingibe absolved Akabio of any blame, disclosing that the three other female senators have been silent about the seating arrangement row because they don’t want to say anything negative about Natasha.

“Silence is golden, especially when one of us is not following the rules, and as women, we did not want to come out publicly to say anything negative about her, and we were hoping all of this will blow over, as a lot of things do,” the Labour Party Senator said.

She added, “The Senate is not a place where we are supposed to fight over trivialities like seating arrangements.”

According to Kingibe, Natasha was not the only lawmaker whose seat was moved. She disclosed that other lawmakers were affected by the seating reassignment.

“This is about the rules of the Senate. So if I can point out that other women have been moved several times on that day, I wasn’t there, but I gathered that several men were also moved,” she said.

The chairperson of the Senate Committee on Women Affairs admitted that the Senate is not gender-friendly, but she said the situation has improved.

She said, “The truth of the matter is, yes, the Senate is not gender friendly, but it has been improving much better than when we first entered the Senate, I must say. And the truth of the matter is, when we make a fuss and draw the attention of the Senate president, he corrects it. Truly, the Senate can do better than he’s doing, but there’s hardly anything that’s been done to us that’s not done to other men.”

Kingibe appealed to women, saying, “I want women to know we have to follow the rules of the institution we choose to enter, and that is mostly the point of this visit here.”

Also, the wife of the Senate President, Mrs. Ekaette Unoma Akpabio, has refuted allegations of sexual harassment made against her husband, Senator Godswill Akpabio, by Senator Natasha Akpoti.

Speaking to journalists, Mrs. Akpabio described the claims as baseless and a fabrication, emphasising the longstanding cordial relationship between their families.

She asserted that she was present at their residence on the alleged date of the incident, December 8, 2023, and dismissed the accusation as false.