Justice Binta Nyako of the Federal High Court in Abuja on Friday has ordered the Senate to reinstate Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan.
While delivering the judgement, Justice Nyako said the Nigerian Senate lacked the powers to suspend the Senator for six months, adding that the duration of the suspension was “excessive” and without a clear legal foundation.
She said both Chapter 8 of the Senate Standing Orders and Section 14 of the Legislative Houses (Powers and Privileges) Act the Senate relied upon, do not stipulate a maximum suspension period. As such, they were deemed overreaching in this case.
Justice Nyako said since the National Assembly is only required to sit for 181 days in a legislative year, suspending a lawmaker for roughly that same length of time effectively silences the voice of an entire constituency—a move she described as unconstitutional.
“While the Senate has the authority to discipline its members, such sanctions must not go so far as to deny constituents their right to representation,” Nyako ruled.
The court, however, ruled that Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, stating that his refusal to allow Akpoti-Uduaghan to speak during a plenary—on the grounds that she was not seated in her designated chair—did not amount to a violation of her rights.
Nyako also rejected Akpabio’s submission that the judiciary had no business interfering in what he called an “internal affair” of the legislature, saying fundamental rights and representation are matters squarely within the court’s purview.
In a twist, the court imposed a monetary penalty on Akpoti-Uduaghan for breaching a prior court directive that barred both parties from making public statements about the ongoing legal matter.
