A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, has cautioned security agencies against investigating how suspended Kogi Central Senator, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, attended the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) meeting in New York.
In a statement released on Sunday, Falana warned that any such probe would expose Nigeria to “needless embarrassment and undeserved ridicule”, particularly given the controversy surrounding the senator’s suspension from the National Assembly.
Akpoti-Uduaghan, who was suspended from the Senate for “gross misconduct”, attended the IPU meeting on March 11, where she publicly criticized her suspension.
She argued that the move was an attempt to silence her after she raised sexual harassment allegations against Senate President Godswill Akpabio.
Her remarks at the global parliamentary gathering sparked backlash at home. Reacting on the Senate floor last Tuesday, Akpabio accused the Kogi senator of “embarrassing the government and people of Nigeria” by taking the issue to an international platform.
Amid the controversy, reports surfaced on Sunday suggesting that the Department of State Services (DSS) and the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) had launched an investigation into how Akpoti-Uduaghan managed to attend the IPU meeting without an official nomination.
Falana strongly opposed any such investigation, arguing that it would backfire and embarrass members of President Bola Tinubu’s administration who had previously traveled abroad to challenge Nigeria’s military regimes.
“Contrary to the jaundiced views of the Senate leadership, it is the official probe of the circumstances of her trip by security forces that will expose Nigeria to needless embarrassment and undeserved ridicule,” Falana said.
He further urged the security agencies to reflect on Nigeria’s past, drawing a parallel to similar actions taken during the military regime of General Sani Abacha.
“The SSS and NIA may study the report of the investigation of our illegal traveling by the Sani Abacha military junta before embarking on the futile attempt to probe Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan for having the temerity to externalize the ‘internal affair’ of the Senate,” Falana added.
He also pointed out the irony of top government officials leading the probe, stating that some of them had, in the past, “traveled out of Nigeria to embarrass the defunct military junta.”