Osamagbe Imadiyi
Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, the suspended senator for Kogi Central, filed a lawsuit on Tuesday, but Justice Obiora Egwuatu of the Federal High Court in Abuja, who was supposed to hear it, recused himself from the case. The Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, wrote a petition challenging the trial judge’s objectivity in the case, which the judge used as the basis for his ruling.
Justice Egwuatu declared his decision in a brief ruling he delivered, even though the suit was initially scheduled for hearing. This was after the court clerk called up the matter. He promised to return the case file to the Chief Judge so that it could be assigned to a different judge.
Recall that on March 4, Justice Egwuatu issued an interim order preventing the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges, and Public Petitions from pursuing the disciplinary action against Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan due to a claim that she had violated the legislative house’s rules. He decided to put the disciplinary procedure on hold while he decided the lawsuit the troubled female lawmaker had brought before him.
Furthermore, Justice Egwuatu gave the defendants in the case 72 hours to explain why it should not grant an interlocutory injunction to prevent them from questioning the plaintiff about alleged misconduct without granting her the privileges outlined in the Legislative Houses (Powers and Privileges) Act, the Senate Standing Order 2023, and the 1999 Constitution as amended.
He gave the plaintiff permission to use substitute methods to serve all defendants with the Originating Summons and all related processes. According to the ruling, they should be served by either delivering the procedures to the National Assembly Clerk or by posting them on the building’s grounds and publishing them in two national newspapers.
