Deputy Chief Whip of the Senate, Peter Nwebonyi, has criticized Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan’s conduct during Thursday’s plenary session.
In an interview with Arise News on Friday, Nwebonyi expressed his disapproval, stating that her actions violated Senate rules. “What Natasha did is completely outside the provisions of our rules, and nothing can justify it,” he said.
He defended the recent seat reallocation in the Senate, dismissing allegations of marginalization or suppression of female voices. According to him, Senate rules grant the presiding officer, Senate President Godswill Akpabio, the authority to reassign seats, especially in cases of party defection.
Nwebonyi explained that the defection of some opposition senators to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) required a seating adjustment to maintain order.
He said, “We have two sides of the Senate. The majority party sits at the right hand side of the presiding officer while the opposition party sits at the left hand side of the presiding officer and in this case, the Senate President. And you’ll agree with me that a few weeks back, some senators from the opposition defected to the ruling party, the APC, thereby creating value within the seating arrangement in the opposition sitting cycle.
“By our rules, particularly order 6, rule 1, empowers the presiding officer which is the Senate President to reallocate seats to senators where there is defection. This allocation of seats did not only affect Natasha, it affected other senators within the sitting role of the opposition. And Natasha instead of moving to the new seat allocated to her, refused to do that. And by doing so, she breached the rule of the senate. It is a very unfortunate incident because to me, it is unwarranted. It shouldn’t be.
“The seats are all the same. It’s just for us to have normalcy without creating a vacuum under the seating arrangement. That is why the Senate President exercised his powers as enshrined in our rules and regulations as a parliament. That is the parliamentary practice all over the world. I want to join my colleagues to condemn this unwarranted act.”
Regarding claims that Akpabio did not allow Uduaghan to defend herself, Nwebonyi maintained that the Senate President acted within the rules.
He said, “Senator Natasha before yesterday’s plenary has been assigned to a new seat and she refused to sit on her seat. Our rule is that you can’t speak except you’re sitting on the seat assigned to you. The Senate President not giving her a chance to speak is in line with the rules. If she had moved to her seat and raised that point of order, I tell you, the Senate President would have given her the opportunity to speak. Our rules are strict. It is not made by Akpabio. It has been there.
“You can’t speak until you’re on your seat. You can’t speak outside your seat. Senate is a serious institution. It’s not a place you can come with whatever you think. We have rules.”
