UPDATED: Akpoti-Uduaghan, supporters defy ban, hold homecoming gathering

Kogi Central District senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan received a rousing welcome from her supporters in her hometown of Ihima on Tuesday despite the state government and police banning rallies and processions.

Channel Television reported that Mrs Akpoti-Uduaghan’s supporters from the district’s five local government areas converged on the Ihima community in the Okehi Local Government Area (LGA) to welcome the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) lawmaker.

While security operatives stood at strategic locations to enforce the ban on political gatherings, the report said Mrs Akpoti-Uduaghan arrived at the event in a white helicopter, eliciting applause from her teeming, jubilant supporters.

“Yesterday, we heard on the news that rallies and gatherings will not be allowed, that roads will be blocked, and convoys leading into the state will not be allowed. I knew that we were the targets. But then I said, this is not the political season; this is not campaign time,” the lawmaker told the gathering.

“We are not having a rally. This is just me, the senator representing Kogi Central, coming down to her people to celebrate this festive time – the Sallah with you, and there is nothing wrong with that. I am breaking no law. This is Nigeria. We have the right to be free, to express our choice in gatherings and celebrations,” she was quoted saying.

The Kogi State Government and the police banned public gatherings and processions, citing security threats.

But the suspended senator told the crowd of supporters that no one can stop her from coming home.

“Nobody and nothing can stop me from coming home. I’m an Ebira woman; this is my land. I’m the daughter of the late Jimoh Abdul Akpoti. I know my roots; I’m not a bastard, and I’m not afraid of anybody,” the PDP senator said.

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The state government had said any individual entering Kogi with a convoy of security personnel must “obtain prior clearance from state commands of the deploying services”.

This development came amid a raging controversy that followed her suspension from the Senate and her planned recall from the Senate by some voters in her constituency.

On 6 March, the Senate suspended her for six months based on the recommendations of its ethics, privileges, and public petitions committee.

The committee found her guilty of breaching the Senate rules following her conduct in the chamber on the day she rejected a new seat allocated to her.

She later accused the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, of sexual harassment. Mr Akpabio denied the allegation.