The chairman of the Senate committee on media and public affairs, Yemi Adaramodu, has said the Senate has no time for skit-making after suspended Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan attempted to resume her duties on Tuesday.
It would be recalled that Senator Natasha, who represents Kogi Central, is under a six-month suspension imposed in May after she accused the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, of victimising her.
On Saturday, she wrote to the Senate that she would be resuming on Tuesday, citing a court ruling recommending that she should be reabsorbed into the Senate in the interest of the people she represents.
She made good her promise to show up on Tuesday, but was stopped from driving into the National Assembly Complex.
The embattled Senator disembarked from her car and continued on foot, but was not able to gain entry into the upper chamber.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Tuesday evening, the Senate’s spokesperson, Adaramodu, said Akpoti-Uduaghan was only indulging in “political theatrics”.
He said the Senate had a lot more to deal with than to be watching skit-making and content creation.
Adaramodu said he had always maintained that his colleague, Senator Natasha, was acting for the camera and that it was all about content creation.
He said he had been vindicated, and it was now degenerating into a season film.
Adaramodu said they were lawmakers and were not interested. “We are lawmakers, not actors”, he declared.
The senator said it was not the responsibility of a litigant to enforce a court judgment.
He said that was the job of the court bailiffs, who were empowered to serve orders on those that should be served as prescribed by the court.
Adaramodiu further asserted that the federal high court did not invalidate Akpoti-Uduaghan’s suspension.
The Senate spokesperson said the same court ordered Natasha to pay a N5 million fine and retract a social media post, but she appealed the ruling.
He wondered why someone who appealed a court order was still trying to enforce it as if it were final.
The senator said by virtue of section 60 of the Nigerian constitution, the Senate did not overreach itself by disciplining an erring member.
On why the suspended senator was not allowed in, Adaramodu said her approach was confrontational.
He said anyone approaching the National Assembly with a placard-carrying mob, chanting war songs, would definitely not be allowed in.
