Justice Binta Nyako of the Federal High Court in Abuja has faulted the suspension of Kogi Central Senator, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan.
Justice Nyako subsequently ordered the Senate to recall the suspended senator on grounds that her suspension for six months violated the Constitution and also denied her constituents of adequate representation.
The judge made the order while delivering judgment in the suit filed by Akpoti-Uduaghan challenging her six months suspension by the Senate.
He described as excessive the six-month suspension that was imposed on the lawmaker by the Senate while faulting the provision in Chapter 8 of the Senate Standing Rules, as well as Section 14 of the Legislative Houses, Powers, and Privileges Act, declaring both to be overreaching.
The court also held that Senate President Godswill Akpabio was not wrong to have denied Senator Natasha, who was not in the official seat that was allotted to her, the opportunity to speak during plenary. The court asked her to apologise to the Senate.
Justice Nyako added that the two pieces of legislation failed to specify the maximum period that a serving lawmaker could be suspended from office.
According to the court, since lawmakers have a total of 181 days to sit in every legislative cycle, the six-month suspension handed to Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan was equivalent to pushing her away from her responsibilities to her constituents for approximately 180 days.
It held that though the Senate has the power to punish any of its members who err, such sanction must not be excessive to deprive the constituents of their right to be represented.
Justice Nyako equally dismissed Akpabio’s contention that the court lacked the jurisdiction to entertain the suit, which he said bordered on an internal affair of the Senate.
Earlier in the ruling, the court imposed a ₦5 million fine on Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan for violating its order, which barred the parties from making public statements about the subject matter of the suit.
It further ordered her to publish an apology within seven days in two national dailies.
Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan is also facing two separate cases of cybercrime and defamation in two separate courts in the nation’s capital.
