Natasha: 6 Months Suspension Is Illegal, It Should Be 2 Weeks – Sen. Arise

Former Chairman of the Senate Committee on Privatisation, Senator Ayo Arise, has said the 6 months suspension handed on Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan mya be illegal.

Naija News reports that the former Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) lawmaker said the argument of Senator Natasha that she was not informed about her seat change was immaterial.

In an interview with Arise News on Saturday, the former Ekiti State lawmaker noted that it was the prerogative of the Senate President to allot seats to senators.

He explained that many reasons, including opposition lawmakers’ defections to the ruling party, could influence a change of seating on the floor of the Senate.

“The very first issue which has culminated in this suspension is the fact that Senator Natasha did not speak, did not address the Senate from her allotted seat. And the fact that the Senator was not happy with the fact that her seat was changed and she was not informed prior to the change. That is the issue that the Senate has just settled. It was as a result of that that the allegation of sexual harassment now surfaced. So I believe taking each case on its merit and the issue of seat allocation is the prerogative of the Senate President.

“Even though there have been cases where those who would forfeit their seat for another seat for some reasons, most of the time it’s because you have a change or maybe people decamping from the minority party to the majority party or vice versa. So it’s not an unusual thing that allocated seats can be changed and they have been changed in the past.

“Now the reaction of the Senator is what brought about the issue of the suspension. I think the handbook of the Senate is very explicit on this particular situation. Section 6 gives the powers to allocate seats to the Senate President,” he said.

Court Prescribed Two Weeks Suspension

Addressing the six months suspension handed to the Kogi Central Senator, Senator Arise explained that the cases of Borno South Senator, Ali Ndume and former Deputy Senate President, Ovie Omo- Agege, should have formed the base of the Senate’s action.

He noted that courts have ruled that the National Assembly can suspend its member for disciplinary purposes, but it should not be more than two weeks.

“Now, whether the suspension is appropriate or too heavy or totally inappropriate, I think the courts have given some decisions in the past on the fact that when you are suspending an elected person, you are depriving that particular senatorial district the right of representation.

“And so the court, in the case of Omo-Agege and Ndume, in their wisdom, have said that six months or 90 days is a little bit too long and it’s not actually legal. They have opined that it is only two weeks suspension that should be appropriate within the Senate as a punishment for any member. Now, this is neither here nor there.

“There must be a situation to empower decorum or to ensure decorum in the Senate. There should be punishments for breach of some of those guidelines. But I think the idea of a two-week suspension is to put somebody in order, to say you are out of order and this Senate will not tolerate your action, so you are thereby suspended for about two weeks or three weeks, maybe no more than 30 days. Because invariably, people are voted in to sit in the Senate,” he stated.