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NIGERIAN GOVT PLANNING TO ARREST ME – NATASHA RAISES ALARM
Kogi Central Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan has alleged that Nigerian security officials are planning to arrest her upon her return to Nigeria.
Mrs Akpoti-Uduaghan claimed the move is linked to her participation in the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) meeting in New York on 11 March, where she raised concerns about her suspension from the Senate and sexual harassment allegations against the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio.
She disclosed this to PREMIUM TIMES in a telephone interview on Sunday.
“I’m aware there are plans underway to have me arrested as soon as I arrive Abuja,” Mrs Akpoti-Uduaghan, who is still in the US after the IPU meeting, said.
The senator did not, however, say which of the security agencies was plotting her arrest.
Nigeria’s internal and external intelligence agencies have launched a probe into how she gained access to the meeting without an official nomination.
A high-ranking administration official and two top security officials involved in the inquiry confided that the State Security Service (SSS) and the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) are working to determine how Mrs Akpoti-Uduaghan attended the international meeting without approval, who facilitated her trip and accreditation, and whether interest groups orchestrated her participation to embarrass Nigeria, its government and its people.
On 11 March, Mrs Akpoti-Uduaghan attended the IPU meeting at the United Nations headquarters in New York, where she narrated the circumstances surrounding her suspension from the Senate.
She alleged that the suspension was politically motivated to silence her for speaking out against misconduct in the legislative chamber and thereafter sought international intervention.
In response, IPU President ,Tulia Ackson, said the parliamentary body would investigate the matter but would also allow the Nigerian Senate to present its side of the story.
However, a Nigerian delegate to the IPU meeting, Kafilat Ogbara, countered Mrs Akpoti-Uduaghan’s claims when she (Ogbara) addressed journalists at the UN secretariat a day after the former ’s attendance at the IPU meeting.
Mrs Ogbara, the chairperson of the House Committee on Women Affairs and Social Development, read a letter from Senate Leader Opeyemi Bamidele, stating that Mrs Akpoti-Uduaghan’s suspension was due to violations of Senate Standing Rules during plenary sessions and not because of her allegations against Mr Akpabio.
Mrs Akpoti-Uduaghan alleged that shortly after her speech at the IPU meeting, the senate president sent three officials led by the Chargé d’affairs of the Nigerian Embassy in New York to forcibly remove her from the United Nations premises during the IPU meeting.
“The Senate President Akpabio sent three staff headed by the Chargè D’Affairs of the Nigerian embassy in New York to evacuate me from the United Nations premises right after my speech. I was rescued by parliamentarians from other countries and the security,” she alleged.
The senate president could not be reached for comment. His spokesperson, Eseme Eyiboh, did not pick up calls to his mobile telephone or respond to a text message.
Similarly, the Senate’s Spokesperson, Yemi Adaramodu, could not be reached as his mobile telephone did not connect..
