{"id":61947,"date":"2025-03-02T03:31:48","date_gmt":"2025-03-02T03:31:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=61947"},"modified":"2025-03-02T03:31:48","modified_gmt":"2025-03-02T03:31:48","slug":"saraki-to-akpabio-submit-yourself-for-open-investigation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2025\/03\/02\/saraki-to-akpabio-submit-yourself-for-open-investigation\/","title":{"rendered":"Saraki to Akpabio: Submit Yourself for Open Investigation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Ade Iyamoye\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Former Senate President Bukola Saraki has called on the incumbent Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, to submit himself for an open and transparent investigation into the sexual harassment allegations leveled against him by Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan.<\/p>\n<p>Saraki, in a statement on Saturday, insisted that the integrity of the Senate is at stake and urged Akpabio and Akpoti-Uduaghan to appear before the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges, and Public Petitions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith the public claims made by the Senator, the right measure to take is an open, transparent, and honest investigation. Both parties must submit to the process and fully cooperate with the committee,\u201d Saraki stated.<\/p>\n<p>Akpoti-Uduaghan had accused Akpabio of making inappropriate advances towards her during a visit to his residence in December 2023.<\/p>\n<p>She also alleged that Akpabio suggested she &#8220;take care of him&#8221; to gain favorable treatment in the Senate.<\/p>\n<p>In response, Akpabio\u2019s wife, Ekaette, has denied the claims and sued Akpoti-Uduaghan for defamation, demanding \u20a6350 billion in damages.<\/p>\n<p>Saraki recalled that during his tenure as Senate President, he faced allegations of customs duty evasion on an official car but submitted himself to the Ethics Committee in a fully transparent process.<\/p>\n<p>He advised Akpabio to follow the same path to uphold the Senate\u2019s credibility.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe cannot allow the Senate to become an institution where sexual harassment, gender bias, and abuse of office thrive.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;A transparent probe will determine the truth and preserve the integrity of the Red Chamber,\u201d Saraki warned.<\/p>\n<p>His call comes amid growing pressure for an independent investigation, with former Vice President Atiku Abubakar also urging President Bola Tinubu to ensure a fair probe into the allegations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Ade Iyamoye\u00a0 Former Senate President Bukola Saraki has called on the incumbent Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, to submit himself for an open and transparent investigation into the sexual harassment allegations leveled against him by Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan. Saraki, in a statement on Saturday, insisted that the integrity of the Senate is at stake and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":61948,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[59],"class_list":["post-61947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-featured"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61947"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61947\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61949,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61947\/revisions\/61949"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}