by Abuja – A legislator in Nigeria was suspended from her office after complaining about sexual harassment by the Senate President, who caused protests and conviction of feminist groups. Senator Natasha Akpoti Uduaghan accused the president of the legislative body, Godswill Akpabio, of making unwanted claims against her in an interview with Nigerian media last week and submitted a petition to him.
She was then suspended for six months, a movement that was justified about an earlier argument that broke out in the senate rooms about a change in her seats.
The petition for sexual harassment was rejected on procedural grounds separately.
“My unjust suspension of the Nigerian Senate makes the principles of natural justice, fairness and fairness invalid,” said Akpoti Uduaghan in a statement on social media. “The illegal suspension does not withdraw my legitimacy as a senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and I will continue to use my chosen position to serve my voters and land to my best capacity up to 2027 … and then.”
The suspension on Thursday only came a few days before International Women’s Day, celebrated every year on March 8.
Akpoti Uduaghan, the alleged sexual harassment, said that the Senate President – who denies the accusations – repeatedly blocked a motion that she tried to develop in the Chamber and then made his progress for requirements for sexual favors. Speaking with the broadcaster TV, the senator said that she was told by Akpabio that the motion could continue if she “took care of him”.
“He said then …” You can enjoy a lot if you take care of me and make me happy, “she said.
The change in seats that caused a row in the rooms, “was a fall, an arrangement”, by Akpabio, who ordered the change, Akpoti Uduaghan said.
Kola Sulaimon/AFP/Getty
“I am dehumanized, I have been offended … The change of chair was just the drop that broke the back of the camel,” she said.
Demonstrants and counter-protesters went on the streets of the capital Abuja on Thursday about the issue, in which one group called for her to apologize. Those who have come to the Senator’s defense say that the row has emphasized long -term issues of women’s rights in the Social Conservative West -African country.
Mabel Adinya Ade, the founder of a women’s rights group, said that the suspension “had exposed the deep -rooted gender -based violence (GBV) and the systemic marginalization of women in Nigerian politics.”
Ade called the suspension a “stunning representation of patriarchal impunity”, in an article published on Thursday in Law and Society Magazine, said: “The message is horrifying: pronounce and you will be punished.”
“By choking the leadership of women, Nigeria sabotages his own progress,” she argued.
Of the 109 members of the Nigerian Senate, only four women are.
