Nigerian Senator Natasha Akpoti Uduaghan suspended after submitting a sexual harassment request against Senate President

Abuja – The Nigeria MP was suspended from her office after complaining about the sexual harassment of Senate President, causing protests and condemnation of feminist groups. Senator Natasha Akpoti Uduaghan accused the president of the legislative body, Godswill Akpabio of having made unwanted progress last week in an interview with Nigerian media and submitted a request against him.

It was then suspended for six months, which was a move that was justified by the earlier argument that broke out in the Senate chambers about changing its arrangement of sitting.

Separately, a petition for sexual harassment has been rejected for procedural reasons.

“My unjust suspension from the Nigerian Senate undo the principle of natural justice, honesty and equality,” Akpoti Uduaghan said in statement Posted on social media. “Illegal suspension does not withdraw my legitimacy as a senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and I will continue to use my duly chosen place to serve my voters and states at best by 2027 … and beyond.”

The suspension on Thursday arrived just a few days before International Women’s Daycelebrated every year on March 8th.

By publishing allegedly sexual harassment, Akpoti Uduaghan said the president of the Senate – who denied the charges – repeatedly blocked the proposal that she tried to progress in the Chamber and then tied up his progress in demands for sexual services. In an interview with television television program, Senator said Akpabio told her that the proposal could pass if she “took care of him”.

“Then he said …” You can enjoy the whole part if you take care of me and make me happy, “she said.

Changing the seat, which encouraged the line in the chambers, “was a trap, a setting” Akpabio, who ordered a change, said Akpoti Uduaghan.

“I was dehumanized, I was abused … Changing the seat was just a straw that broke the fireplace,” she said.

Protesters and counterproters went to the streets of the capital Abuja on Thursday because of the question, with one group invited her to apologize. Those who came to Senator’s defense say that order highlighted the long -standing questions of women’s rights in socially conservative West African country.

Mabel Adinya Ade, founder of the Women’s Rights Group, said the suspension “exposed the deeply rooted native violence (GBV) and the systemic marginalization of women in Nigerian politics.”

Calling a suspension “with a stunning representation of patriarchal impunity”, ade, in article Posted on Thursday in Law and Society, said: “The message is cold: you speak, and you will be punished.”

“By suffocating women’s leadership, Nigeria sabotes her own progress,” she claimed.

Of the 109 members of the Nigerian Senate, there are only four women.