Akpabio Mocks Natasha On International Women’s Day

By Adesina Soyooye

Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, chose the day set aside to celebrate women all over the World – International Women’s Day – to mock Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan.

The two clashed on the floor of the Senate over a new seating allocation to Akpoti-Uduaghan, but it boiled over when Akpabio refused to allow Akpoti-Uduaghan make a contribution from her old seat. She refused to go to the new seat.

Flowing from that, in an interview with Arise Television, she accused Akpabio of maltreating her because she refused to give in to his inappropriate solicitations.

That has since resulted in a couple of legal suits – one by Akpoti-Uduaghan against Akpabio and an aide of his, and the other by an infuriated Mrs Unoma Akpabio against Akpoti-Uduaghan. It also earned Akpoti-Uduaghan a six-month suspension from the Senate.

Akpabio has since denied he ever made such solicitations, but on March 8, while speaking at a function in Abuja to mark the International Women’s Day, Akpabio mocked Akpoti-Uduaghan.

Aside from denying any such incident took place, he said that all the men Akpoti-Uduaghan had, earlier, accused of harassing her se3ually, came out smelling of roses; that the allegations were proved to be false.

Akpabio: “This is said to have happened on December 8, a day to my birthday which was celebrated in the Stadium in 2023. So, from December 8, 2023, I never heard, my wife never heard, no Nigerian ever heard, even the husband never heard any issue of sexual harassment until her committee was changed and then her seat was changed.

“Have you ever wondered about the trauma caused by that same woman on the other people she has accused in the past. None has been proven so far. Do you even wonder the trauma this caused to the 10th Senate and the image of the Senate with all these useless allegations. I have refrained myself from making a statement.”

He added that he had come across many beautiful women and none had accused her of such misconduct, and wondered why she thought herself more beautiful than the other women.