{"id":70113,"date":"2025-07-09T15:03:50","date_gmt":"2025-07-09T15:03:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=70113"},"modified":"2025-07-09T15:03:50","modified_gmt":"2025-07-09T15:03:50","slug":"natasha-delays-senate-return-amid-apology-row-legal-uncertainty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2025\/07\/09\/natasha-delays-senate-return-amid-apology-row-legal-uncertainty\/","title":{"rendered":"Natasha Delays Senate Return Amid Apology Row, Legal Uncertainty"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Adenike Lawal<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Suspended Senator representing Kogi Central, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, did not return to the Senate on Tuesday as widely expected, despite a Federal High Court ruling last Friday overturning her six-month suspension.<br \/>\nHer continued absence is linked to controversy surrounding her partial compliance with the court\u2019s conditionsparticularly the requirement to issue a public apology in two national newspapers and on her verified social media handles. As of Tuesday, the apology had not been published.<br \/>\nFollowing the court\u2019s decision, Akpoti-Uduaghan had taken to social media in a widely circulated video, expressing gratitude to her constituents and pledging to resume her legislative duties without delay. The video raised expectations of a dramatic re-entry into plenary.<br \/>\nHowever, the Senate leadership moved quickly to manage those expectations, stating that no action would be taken on her status until the Certified True Copy (CTC), of the court ruling was thoroughly reviewed.<br \/>\nTensions at the National Assembly were palpable on Tuesday, with heightened security measures in place.<br \/>\nAccess roads were heavily manned, vehicles searched, and visitors scrutinized-moves that observers linked to concerns over Natasha\u2019s possible return, though security operatives denied any connection.<br \/>\nHer no-show sparked speculation that she may have received behind-the-scenes warnings from Senate authorities to stand down.<br \/>\nFueling this theory was the circulation of an unverified legal memo, allegedly from the Senate\u2019s legal team, dated July 5, 2025.<br \/>\nThe memo reportedly argued that the court ruling did not constitute an enforceable order and advised Natasha\u2019s lawyer, Jubrin Okutepa (SAN), to urge restraint until the enrolled order was made available.<br \/>\nThe document, said to bear the name and signature of Senate counsel Paul Daudu, allegedly warned that any premature attempt by Natasha to return could trigger unrest on the Senate floor.<br \/>\nHowever, Daudu swiftly denied issuing any such memo, calling the claims false and disassociating himself from the circulating document.<br \/>\nFor now, Akpoti-Uduaghan\u2019s next steps remain unclear. While the Senate insists on due process, her supporters continue to hope for her eventual reinstatement following what many believed would be her victorious return to legislative duty.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Adenike Lawal Suspended Senator representing Kogi Central, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, did not return to the Senate on Tuesday as widely expected, despite a Federal High Court ruling last Friday overturning her six-month suspension. Her continued absence is linked to controversy surrounding her partial compliance with the court\u2019s conditionsparticularly the requirement to issue a public apology [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":70114,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-70113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70113","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\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70113"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70113\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70115,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70113\/revisions\/70115"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}