Falana warns, probing Natasha’s IPU meeting attendance will expose Nigeria to needless ridicule
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Human rights lawyer Femi Falana SAN, has cautioned Bola Tinubu and his officials to back off the reported investigation of how Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan (PDP, Kogi Central) attended the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) meeting in New York last week without official invitation.
If Aso Rock proceeds with the investigation, Falana warned, the President and the security agencies and other officials should brace themselves for an embarrassment of monumental proportions.
Falana was reacting to reports that the Department of State Services (DSS) and the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) have launched an enquiry into how Natasha attended the IPU meeting where she alleged victimisation as a female Senator.
That came from her suspension from the Nigerian Senate after alleging that Senate President Godswill Akpabio sexually harassed her on three separate occasions.
In reaction, Akpabio accused her of embarrassing the government by raising the issue at the IPU, and denied that her suspension is a retaliation for accusing him of sexual harassment.
Falana issued a statement on Sunday which dismissed the investigation of Natasha’s attendance at the IPU meeting as a futile attempt that could expose Nigeria to “needless embarrassment and undeserved ridicule.”
His words: “Finally, it is public knowledge that the Senate President, Senator Godswill Akpabio had accused Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan of embarrassing the government and people of the Federal Republic of Nigeria by reporting her suspension by the Senate to the Inter-Parliamentary Union.
“Contrary to the jaundiced views of the senate leader, it is the official probe of the circumstances of her trip by security forces that will expose Nigeria to needless embarrassment and undeserved ridicule.
“Therefore, the SSS and NIA may study the report of the investigation of our illegal travelling by the Sani Abacha military junta before embarking on the futile attempt to probe Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan for having the temerity to externalise the ‘internal affair of the Senate.’
“In fact, the probe will particularly embarrass some top officials of the Bola Tinubu administration who were once accused of travelling out of Nigeria to embarrass the defunct military junta.”
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