The Senator representing Kogi Central, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, has accused the President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio of sexual harassment on a live television programme.
Natasha and Akpabio have been in the news since last week following her refusal to move to a new seat the Senate President allocated to her.
Telling her side of the story, yesterday, during a television programme, the lawmaker said her trouble in the senate started because she refused to sleep with Akpabio.
She recounted how Akpabio while showing her around his house in Uyo in December 2023, asked her to “spend quality time with him.”
While taking her around the house, Natasha said “He got to this particular sitting room and then he asked me, do you like my house and I said, of course nice sitting room, nice interior, quality taste. He said, now that you’re a senator, I am going to create time for us to come spend quality moments here, you’ll enjoy it. At that point, I just pulled away and was like I don’t really understand what that meant.”
Senator Natasha also recounted another instance when she pleaded with the Senate President to allow her motion on the Ajaokuta steel company to be considered for deliberation on the Senate floor.
According to her, Akpabio frustrated her moves for the motion on the matter because she refused to sleep with him.
She said, “In February, I wanted to move a motion on the ills of Ajaokuta Steel Company. I listed that motion five times. It was the sixth time it was listed on the order paper that it was approved. Many senators can testify to that. Each time the motion is listed, just before he takes it, he would say, “We can’t take this motion because the mood of the Senate does not accommodate it.”
“He kept on doing that. I went to him in his office, and I said Senate President, you know how important this Ajaokuta Steel Company is to me.
You know how important it is to my people and Nigeria. I’ve noticed that you have stepped down this motion, why can’t you take this motion? It’s very important.
He then said, Natasha, I am the Chief Presiding Officer of the Senate. You can enjoy a whole lot if you take care of me and make me happy. At that point, I told him I would pretend that I didn’t hear this.”
Senator Natasha likened the situation to lecturers repeatedly fail female students because the students refuse to sleep with them.
