By George Mgbeleke,Abuja<\/p>\n
Embattled kogi state lawmaker, Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan\u00a0 arrived at the National Assembly amid heightened security presence.<\/p>\n
Recall the Kogi central lawmaker was on March 6, suspended by the Senate for six months. The six months suspension is expected to expire on September 5.<\/p>\n
To make good her plan to be present at Tuesday plenary, the lawmaker stormed NASS entrance her supporters and attempted to drive through the Mopol gate of the National Assembly but was halted by security operatives who blocked her vehicle, prompting her to step down and proceed on foot.<\/p>\n
Senator Natasha, accompanied by prominent activist Aisha Yesufu and several members of various human rights organizations, continued her approach to the Assembly by walking towards the second gate.<\/p>\n
She eventually arrived at the main entrance to the federal parliament after trekking for about one kilometer with her supporters at the Assembly complex at 12.27pm in an attempt to resume her duties at the Senate.<\/p>\n
The presence of the senator and her supporters caused traffic gridlock within the vicinity of the parliament building for about two hours.<\/p>\n
However, the heavy security personnel at the gate stopped her by force and insisted that she would not enter.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile after fruitless effort to gain access to the National Assembly Complex,Senator representing Kogi Central, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan who stormed the National Assembly complex with a large crowd of supporters on Tuesday in Abuja,spoke to journalists on her ordeal said her suspension from the National Assembly was personally orchestrated by the President of the Senate,Godswill Akpabio.<\/p>\n
Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan and a group of her supporters appeared at the assembly complex at 12.27pm in an attempt to resume her duties at the Senate.<\/p>\n
The presence of the senator and her supporters at the caused traffic gridlock within the vicinity of the parliament building for about two hours.<\/p>\n
She was accompanied by human rights activist, Aisha Yesufu, her lawyers, aides and supporters.<\/p>\n
But the senator, acting on a recent ruling of a federal high court, which ruled that the suspension period was excessive, decided to resume on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The suspended Kogi lawmaker who defied the narrative of the senate, said that her suspension as ruled in court is excessive and did not stop her from resuming her legislative duties.<\/p>\n
She also noted that the reported appeal against an aspect of the ruling by the senate was incorrect as reported in the media, adding that Senator Akpabio was the only appellant in the court papers.<\/p>\n
She blamed the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio for not allowing her access to the parliament building to attend plenary session and to enter her office.<\/p>\n
Fielding questions from journalists, Natasha said it was illegal and unconstitutional for the Senate to deny her entry.<\/p>\n
She also said the legislative house trampled on the rule of law and infringed on her constitutional rights.<\/p>\n
Blaming Akpabio mainly for being behind the blockade, the Kogi senator restated her position that she was not afraid of Akpabio.<\/p>\n
The lawmaker stated that her team of lawyers will take another look at the event of Tuesday and possibly return to the Appeal court while waiting for the resumption of the Senate in September to make her return.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By George Mgbeleke,Abuja Embattled kogi state lawmaker, Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan\u00a0 arrived at the National Assembly amid heightened security presence. Recall the Kogi central lawmaker was on March 6, suspended by the Senate for six months. The six months suspension is expected to expire on September 5. To make good her plan to be present at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5671,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1285,3685,3686,1695,1251,778,108],"class_list":["post-5670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-appeal","tag-barred","tag-blockade","tag-constitutional","tag-orchestrated","tag-resumption","tag-suspension"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5670"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5670\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5672,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5670\/revisions\/5672"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}