Security personnel prevented suspended Kogi Central lawmaker Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan from entering the National Assembly complex in Abuja on Tuesday, causing a scene at the entrance. The senator was turned away by security guards when she arrived at the gate with a group of supporters; rights advocate Mama P, activist Randy, and activist Aisha Yesufu.
In an attempt to step in, Yesufu confronted the gate officers and contested the purported order to bar Natasha from entering. “National Assembly is meant to be for everyone. We are law abiding doesn’t mean we are cowards,” she said, asking why they were being stopped.
As some supporters started shouting “Push!” and trying to barge in, the standoff swiftly became more heated. Later, it was observed that Natasha’s supporters were advancing on the complex.
After being refused entry to the Senate chambers, Akpoti-Uduaghan spoke to reporters and expressed her intense annoyance with the Senate leadership, particularly in light of a recent court decision that had ruled in her favor.
“It’s about me, a duly elected senator walking into the chambers to resume my constitutional duties,” she stated. “I had duly notified the Senate through two letters that I would be resuming functions today, July 22nd, 2025.”
The senator brought up two main issues: the Senate’s purported disregard for a court order and the significant police presence. “The number of armed policemen we met outside, all well-kitted with guns, charging at an unarmed female senator, was shocking. “We have people here, who witnessed this.
“The second thing is the fact that the Senate, under its leadership, has decided to become lawbreakers by denying my entrance into the chambers to resume my duties,” she stated.
Akpoti-Uduaghan also spoke out against what she described as a willful attempt to distort the court’s decision in the press.
She said, “There’s been some conversations in the media by their own team trying to twist a narrative that the judge did not order my reinstatement, and I’d like to clarify that. “If you look at Section 318 of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution, it’s very clear that decisions of a court come in five ways: a judicial decree, a sentence, an order, a conviction, and a recommendation.”
“Mine tilted towards a recommendation, which some interpret as voluntary, meaning the Senate has the right to comply or not. “But I’d like to clarify that again. “If you go further to Section 287, Subsection 3 of the 1999 Constitution, it clearly specifies that decisions, any of these five decisions of any court, are binding on every authority.
“So, what that means in simple terms: whether Justice Binta Nyako or the Federal High Court made an order, a sentence, a judicial decree, or a recommendation, however they want to interpret the literal words, it is still a decision of a court, and it is still binding on the National Assembly.”
The senator promised to seek legal remedies to rectify the situation as she left the building with her supporters.
