Former presidential spokesman, Laolu Akande, has claimed the Senate is ganging up against the lawmaker representing Kogi Central, Natasha Akpoti, over the sexual harassment allegation against the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio.
Naijaonpoint reports that Senator Natasha 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, during its hearing on Wednesday, dismissed Natasha’s sexual harassment and abuse of office petition against Akpabio.
It declared it “dead on arrival” and cited procedural violations and legal constraints.
During an interview on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Thursday, March 6, 2025, Laolu Akande said the Senate gang-up against Natasha must stop.
He said the leadership of the Senate should show Nigerians that there will be a dispassionate consideration of the Kogi lawmaker’s allegations.
He said, “They need to stop all these images, meetings, and ganging up against this woman. That has to stop. The leadership of the Senate needs to show us that there is going to be a dispassionate consideration of her allegations.
“Once that is sorted, if you think that there is a need to punish her for violating the rules, it is the better way to handle it. This idea of all of the men coming out and brandishing the rules is not looking pretty at all.
“This woman has said to the whole world that she has been sexually harassed. We have to be careful, the Nigerian Senate has to be careful not to create an impression that we are trying to silence her.
“What we have been seen so far is a lot of men holding meetings, speaking out, coming to the media to run this woman down. It is a poor reflection on the Nigerian Senate.”