Senator representing Ebonyi North in the National Assembly, Onyekachi Nwaebonyi, has claimed his colleague, Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan’s accusation against Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, was owing to her failure to secure a committee leadership.
Naijaonpoint reports that the female lawmaker, representing Kogi Central Senatorial District, had petitioned Akpabio over claims of sexual harassment in the wake of a seating arrangement dispute in the Senate.
However, the Senate Committee on Ethics, Code of Conduct, and Public Petitions, on Wednesday, dismissed Natasha’s sexual harassment and abuse of office petition against Akpabio.
The Committee declared it “dead on arrival” and cited procedural violations and legal constraints.
In an interview on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Thursday, March 6, 2025, Nwaebonyi claimed that Natasha is hurt about losing her quest to lead a committee in the upper lawmaking body.
The Ebonyi lawmaker accused Senator Natasha of putting her interests first instead of the interests of Nigeria and her constituency.
He said, “Senator Natasha is claiming sensual harassment because she lost the chairmanship of local content and not that she was harassed by Senator Akpabio or any other senator.
“Senator Natasha was the chairman of the Senate Committee on Local Content which she felt she was comfortable with. But in the Senate, from time to time, committee leadership is changed; reshuffled, and her committee was affected like every other chairmen.
“She was shifted to the Senate committee on diaspora which didn’t go down well with Senator Natasha.
“Putting her interests first. She’s not putting the interests of Nigeria first. She’s not putting the interests of her constituency first. She’s putting her interests first, and that is the cause of this allegation”.