The Federal Government has reacted to the controversy surrounding the suspension of Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, saying it is working to mediate peace between the parties involved.
The development comes just a day after the Senate suspended Akpoti-Uduaghan for six months, following her petition alleging sexual harassment by Senate President Godswill Akpabio.
The Minister of Women Affairs, Iman Suleiman-Ibrahim, disclosed this on Friday while speaking with journalists at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
She stated that the government is engaging with the leadership of the National Assembly to ensure a fair resolution.
“We’re engaging all the stakeholders to ensure that they temper justice with mercy,” she said.
It can be recalled that in February, Natasha had a disagreement with the Senate leadership over the change of sitting arrangement.
She later went on live TV, alleging sexual harassment by Akpabio and denial of her rights. A lawsuit demanding damages for the alleged actions was instituted by the Senator.
Reacting, Suleiman-Ibrahim described the situation as unfortunate and stressed the need to protect women’s representation in politics.
She said, “It’s an unfortunate incident that should not happen. In the last assembly, we had nine senators that were women.
“We don’t want to be losing any woman member in the Senate or decrease in the numbers.
“We’re going to be brokering peace. We’ll engage all the stakeholders to ensure that they temper justice with mercy.”
She also emphasized that the Senate President had expressed willingness to resolve the matter through dialogue.
“I was at the National Assembly yesterday, at the Senate where we marked the International Women’s Day.
“The last thing the Senate president said was that ‘we’re open to broker peace.’
“So we’re going to be the intermediary between the two parties to see that we broker peace; for peace to reign, and then we’ll continue to sensitise everyone so that we learn to work better together as women and men,” she said.
The article was originally published on Politics Nigeria.
