• Why my Committee didn't hear Natasha's petition
Kingsley Abavo (Managing Editor) Benin
Senator Neda Imasuen is the representative of Edo South senatorial district at the Upper Chambers of the National Assembly of Nigeria. Also, he is Chairman, Senate Committee of Ethics, Privileges, and Public Petitions. Last Friday, 28 April, 2025 in Benin, Edo State he spoke to journalists on the raging sexual harassment saga between senator Natasha Akpoti Udaughan from Kogi State and the Senate President, senator Godswill Akpabio. Against insinuation in some quarters, I am not biased and I have nothing personal against anyone. My Committee could not hear the petition (Natasha's) because it fell short of the rules of the Senate, he stated. Information reaching me is that some persons have been taken to Kogi State to work on my recall from the Senate. It is this plot that has necessitated this press conference, he said. Though he was advised in Abuja not to speak on the issue, Imasuen disclosed.
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But considering what is happening in Benin, there are certain things I find very reprehensible and difficult to understand. From what I have gathered, some people have been paid—some have even been taken to Kogi to be briefed on what to do, and they were given money for that purpose.
So they are here to work for their money, but, surprisingly, I do not see how someone from Kogi can come to Edo and start telling our people to throw stones at their own roofs.
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That is something strange to me. I suppose it is the hunger in the land that makes some people willing to sell their mothers, their parents, or whatever is before them for a mere meal. I understand their plight.
My committee is not an ad-hoc one; but one of the seven standing committees of the Senate hence very important.
Little over two years I have been Chairman of the committee and I didn't know from the beginning that the Akpabio/Natasha saga was going to occur.
And in all fairness, I have been very impartial in my work. I must also put on record that the issue before my committee was about conduct on the Senate floor; it had absolutely nothing to do with sexual harassment.
Sexual harassment came after the first petition that was brought before the committee and we have standing rules and those standing rules must be followed to the letter.
It is not a one man committee, it is a committee of about 28, 29 members, and I am just the Chairman.
I have nothing personal with anybody and I have attended a variety of matters in that committee since its inception.
Whether it is oil spillage in the Niger Delta, whether it is someone rusticated from the University, whether it is someone who feels he has been denied promotion, whether it is in the military, somebody who feels he has been unjustly sacked from the military, whether someone who believes the promotion due him has been denied; all manners of petitions come to my table.
I have a hearing team that is dedicated to that committee so it is a committee that is very important.
So for anyone to suggest that someone is targeted is very useless or for anyone to even think this committee was set up specially to deal with the matter at hand is also misplaced.
Please I just want to clear the air, I have not been biased against anybody that is what they bandied about; that I was biased; I was not biased at all and I am still not biased!
On the issue of sexual harassment; the first petition that was made by the petitioner was signed by the petitioner herself and that is against our standing rules. The petition cannot be signed by you if you are the senator involved in the petition. It has to be signed by another senator or anyone from your constituency.
So when she made that report many senators objected saying it has come short of the senate requirements hence it cannot be heard.
But in the wisdom of the senate president, it has to be sent to the ethics committee. But when the petition came to the committee, members also raised objection that it cannot fly as we cannot wave aside our rules which say she cannot sign, it must be signed by someone else therefore this petition cannot fly and we returned it back to the petitioner.
Maybe that was what angered them when I said the petition was dead on arrival because it was not properly signed.
And she went back after two days, she presented a petition that was now properly signed by someone else even the new petition has its own problem, it was without an address. You can't send a petition to the committee without an address. What it has was a Ward and a voting unit, Ward 8. Also, a phone number.
Consequently, the committee directed that the clerk of the House must contact the petitioner to appear before it via the phone number provided.
When he eventually came, we pointed out to him that this petition should not have been entertained because of no proper address.
We asked him to speak to the petition but he declined saying; that the committee and indeed the entire senate is biased.
Meanwhile, the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio when invited by the committee, he sent his lawyer Ubani SAN.
Ubani presented two matters relating to sexual harassment before the committee; that the Senate President's wife has instituted a law suit against Senator Natasha.
And our rule is that if we have a case before any competent court of jurisdiction, we do not hear it.
However, the committee was ready to hear the petition but handicapped by the reason that there was a pending suit in court relating to the allegations of the petition; sexual harassment, coupled with the fact that the petitioner was not ready to speak to the petition under the excuse of bias by the Senate.
On this premise, the petition was returned to who signed it and advised the Senate that "we cannot even hear the petition."
Senator Imasuen noted some persons are busy bodies who jump into the fray of what is not their business and they form the purview of misinformation all over the place.
As he alleged that he was aware of a group of people in Edo who were invited to Kogi, and hired to do a hatchet job as regards the Natasha/Akpabio saga.
"Some of them would go there to say that they are starting my recall, I wish them well, let them continue!"
Imasuen said he was constrained to speak against the advice given him in Abuja not to speak on the matter but because of the circumstances in Benin which he witnessed.
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