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As court convicts Natasha, validates Senate’s power to suspend erring members

Published

12 months ago

July 8, 2025

By Ken Harries Esq

Since the suspension of the Senator representing Kogi Central Senatorial District, Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, by the Senator Godswill Akpabio-led 10th Senate on March 6, 2025, for gross misconduct, there has been a cacophony of voices and divergent views as to the propriety, constitutionality, and legality of the action. Natasha, on her own, has been globetrotting, preaching the gospel of innocence and alleging victimization and sexual harassment.

Senator Natasha made an underwhelming appearance at the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Women’s Assembly held at the United Nations headquarters in New York, twisting the story of her suspension. She told the women that her suspension was “Political victimization, punishment for speaking against gender-based violence,” and after her allegations of sexual harassment against the Senate President, which is a lie from the pit of hell.

The sexual harassment allegations were just an afterthought and, of course, another plot to discredit the person of the Senate President. She never knew that both the media and the public knew her story, and she could not hoodwink anyone. The suspended and now convicted senator never fathomed that the proceedings of the Senate are public documents and the women at the IPU could access them to confirm her allegations. It never occurred to Natasha that she was dancing naked in the marketplace at the Inter-Parliamentary Union. Surprisingly, to date, the embattled lawmaker has not filed any case or initiated any criminal complaint touching on her much-touted sexual harassment claims.

Buoyed by social media influencers and freelance lawyers, Senator Natasha approached the Federal High Court in Abuja, challenging the powers of the President of the Senate to preside over proceedings of the Senate after she had raised tantrums emboldened by her reliance on Order 10 of the Senates’s standing Order. It was on the strength of the same Order 10 that she insisted she could speak from anywhere in breach of the Rules. But last week, a Federal High Court presided over by Justice Binta Nyako, finally resolved the issue, and left Natasha in the cold.

On the core issue raised in the substantive suit, the court resolved all the questions for determination against the suspended senator. Justice Binta Nyako ruled emphatically that the Nigerian Senate has the constitutional authority to discipline its members for violating its Standing Orders. She affirmed that the action of the Senate President on February 20, 2025, in reallocating Senator Natasha’s seat was lawful and within his administrative powers under Section 6 (2) of the Rules when she attempted to speak from an unallocated seat.

The court further held that in exercising this power, the President of the Senate did not need to consult anyone. A senator is only permitted to address the plenary from the seat formally assigned, and Natasha acted contrary to Section 6 (2) of the Rules when she attempted to speak from an unallocated seat. Her subsequent claim that the newly allocated seat didn’t afford her media visibility was as infantile as it was irrelevant.

The court unequivocally deposed that the referral of Senator Natasha by the Senate plenary to the Senate Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions Committee for disciplinary action was valid and appropriate, arising from her breach of the Senate Standing Orders.

The court also upheld the application filed by Senate President Akpabio bordering on contempt. The court found that the satirical ‘apology’ posted on her official Facebook page on 27th April 2025 was a clear violation of its restraining order made on 4th April 2025, which barred all parties from making public comments on the matter.

Justice Nyako ruled that the publication was contemptuous, deliberately ridiculing both the Senate President and the judicial process. Accordingly, the court imposed a N5 million fine payable to the Federal Government of Nigeria and directed Senator Natasha to publish a public apology within seven days in two national newspapers and on the same Facebook page where the contemptuous publication was made.

This conviction speaks volumes about the integrity deficit of the suspended senator, as her conduct has fallen short of what is expected of a senator of the Federal Republic. This has called into question her psychological acuity and ability to operate in a sane and lawful environment. In other words, the judgement of the court has exposed the convicted senator’s inability to conform to constituted authority or abide by simple rules and regulations. She was moved from a seat, and she refused to comply with the directive of the Senate President, whom she knew very well, had the power to preside over the Senate.

Again, Natasha was referred to the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions for unruly behaviour. She ignored the invitation to appear before the committee and defend herself, but rather chose to go to the social media court to present her case. But when she was sanctioned and suspended, she ran to the court for reprieve. Still being recalcitrant, she could not obey the simple directives of the court to cease further comments on the matter until it was determined. Natasha went to town behaving like a secondary school girl who had just been handed a new phone and proceeded to publish contemptuous material.

It is unfortunate that even being a lawyer and a lawmaker at the highest level, Senator Natasha has exuded incredible ignorance or faint understanding of the Nigerian Constitution, the principle of Separation of Powers and the Standing Orders and Rules of the Senate. Perhaps with this declaration by the court, she will take time to reflect on the provisions of sections 4, 5, 6, 60 and 101 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (As amended), as well as Section 6 (2) of the Standing Orders and Rules of the Senate.

The parliament is a sacred environment for mature minds and not a zoo or a playground for developing ‘content’. According to Yuval Noah Harari, an Israeli historian, philosopher, and author of the bestselling books “Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind”, “Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow”, and “21 Lessons for the 21st Century”, “If you take 10,000 chimpanzees and cram them together into Wembley Stadium or the House of Parliament, you will get chaos. But if you take 10,000 people who have never met before, they can cooperate and create amazing things”. The Senate is an amazing institution constituted by reform-minded, stable and focused statesmen and shall never be a theatre of the absurd.

* Ken Harries Esq is an Abuja-based development communication Strategist.

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BREAKING: Court sentences Nigerien, two others to death over terrorism

Published

2 days ago

June 24, 2026

Whirlwindnews

Justice Muhammad Nuraddeen Bello of High Court sitting in Sokoto State has sentenced three men, including a foreign national, to death by hanging, after convicting them on charges bordering on terrorism and arms proliferation.

The convicts, Yusuf Muhammad (alias Sallau), a Nigerien; Jabbi Alhaji Yalle; and Kabiru Muhammad, were apprehended on 13th June, 2025, by the Department of State Services (DSS) Counter Terrorism Unit in connection with cross-border criminal activities bordering on arms trafficking and terrorism.

Bello, who found all three defendants guilty as charged and sentenced them to death by hanging, while also ordering the forfeiture of all monetary exhibits recovered from the convicts to the Federal Government, said: “The conviction is the latest in a series of successful prosecutions by the DSS in its sustained operations against terrorism and organised cross-border criminal networks across Nigeria.”

The sentencing is coming about two weeks after the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja sentenced each of the five suspects arrested on May 31, 2026, by the DSS for their involvement in the November 21, 2025, attack on St Mary’s Catholic School, Papiri, Niger State, to 25 years’ imprisonment.

Justice Binta Nyako, had handed down the judgment after the men, including two Nigeriens, pleaded guilty to all four terrorism-related charges, bordering on support for the commission of an act of terrorism, breaching both Section 16 of the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022, and the Firearms Act, were pressed against them.

According to Count One, the men were accused of jointly conspiring to assist a terrorist by agreeing and intentionally playing various roles towards conveying 15 AK 103 rifles as well as about 1,434 rounds of 7.62mm live ammunition from the Diffa region, Republic of Niger, to one Malam Ahmad, a member of the Boko Haram terrorist group based in Borgu, Niger State, and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 26(1) of the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022.

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BREAKING: Primate Ayodele to pay Kwankwaso N10billion over Obi betrayal claim!

Published

2 days ago

June 24, 2026

Whirlwindnews

Primate Elijah Ayodele, is on the verge of coughing out a whopping N10billion, if he fails to offer unrestrained apology to Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, former Governor of Kano State within the next 24 hours, and retract his claim that the former Minister of Defence is bidding his time to betray Peter Obi, to whom he is to contest the 2027 presidential election as a running mate.

Without doing so, the controversial cleric, should be ready for a major court battle with the vice-presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), the platform on which the pair is to contest the election.

In a letter indicating a legal action against Ayodele of the INRI Evangelical Spiritual Church over defamatory remarks, Kwankwaso, through Magaji Mato Ibrahim, SAN & Co., his lawyers demanded an immediate retraction and apology from the cleric over the allegations.

Details of the letter, dated June 11, and unveiled through the X platform of the legal team, was based on a viral video recorded during a live-streamed church service, where the preacher made allegations targeting Kwankwaso’s integrity as Peter Obi’s running mate under the NDC.

Quoting the cleric as stating: “KWANKWASO IS A FAKE TO OBI, KWANKWASO WILL BETRAY YOU. KWANKWASO HAS BEEN PAID TO BE VICE PRESIDENT TO OBI AMONG OTHER LIBELOUS COMMENTS WHILE PRETENDING TO BE A PREACHER,” the former governor said the comments were unprovoked, grossly unfounded, and carefully designed to create a rift within the ranks of the political party and its supporters.

Handing Ayodele a 24-hour ultimatum to publish a full and unequivocal retraction across all social media platforms and news outlets with the same prominence as the original video, they also demanded a written undertaking that he would cease and desist from making any further malicious statements against their client, warning that failure to comply, would lead to full legal actions.

The letter stated: “We shall claim substantial damages to the tune of Ten Billion Naira and cost of the action on a full indemnity basis amongst other reliefs.”

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Exploitation of African minerals must stop now – Tinubu *Demands local processing

Published

2 days ago

June 24, 2026

Whirlwindnews

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Tuesday demanded the immediate end to the exportation of minerals from countries in Africa in their raw forms, which he said had led to massive exploitation of the continent.

The President, told member countries of the African Minerals Strategy Group (AMSG), a forum of Ministers in charge of Mining and Solid Minerals on the continent to speak with one voice to promote, collective interests, ensure value addition, and prevent the continent from becoming merely a source of raw materials for the rest of the world.

As the Grand Patron of the group, chaired by Dele Alake, Nigeria’s Minister of Solid Minerals Development, gave the charge while receiving a delegation of AMSG in the State House, Tinubu told the delegation that the group had a critical role to play in strengthening Africa’s bargaining power in the global mineral market and ensuring that the continent derives maximum value from its natural resources.

His words: “ What we should do is avoid bureaucracy and deceit; we must put an end to exploitation. The rest of the world won’t mind if your country is a cesspit of dams and rubbish and excavates your raw materials without giving value.

“It is our responsibility to collaborate and cooperate to ensure that these metals and minerals bring value to us, bring technology to us, and we can do it. It is how much each country will put into the research, development and refinery. I don’t see reasons we cannot demand centralisation of that conversation somewhere on the continent. So why not utilise that in our research and development and knowledge-based economy to enhance the quality of life and bring prosperity to our people.”

Emphasising that Africa possessed enormous mineral wealth that should be strategically harnessed to drive industrialisation, create jobs and accelerate economic transformation across the continent, the President, said the era of exporting raw minerals without local processing and beneficiation must give way to a new model that encourages investment in local industries, technology transfer and the development of value chains that retain wealth within Africa.

Alake, who had earlier expressed gratitude to the President for his exemplary leadership under the Renewed Hope Agenda, said the gesture had shown support for Nigeria’s mineral sector, especially in the local value-addition and economic diversification drive, where artisanal miners are empowered.

He told the President: “You encouraged us to look at the focal point of the establishment of this group, which is to ensure that the African natural resources, especially with regards to minerals, critical matters, are localised, the beneficiation coming directly to Africans generally.

“You charged us that we should set our sails very high and ensure that local value addition is a pivot around which all the objectives of this organisation should revolve.

“So, sir, we have gone implemented your charge and we are quitted that today local value addition is reverberating all over Africa.”

He added that some member countries have gone ahead to ban the export of raw minerals.

He explained members of the body were in Abuja for the Fifth edition of the African Natural Resources and Energy Investment Summit (AFNIS 2026), to push for a new continental approach to resource management and industrial development.

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