BREAKING: How Can Lawmakers Be Lawbreakers? Ezekwesili Asks Senate

The former Minister of Education, Obiageli Ezekwesili, has said Nigerians want accountability from the Senate on the allegation of sexual harassment from Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan against Senate President Godswill Akpabio.

Naija News reports that Ezekwesili said the Senate must not act in a way that would seem they were dodging a fair and transparent hearing on the sexual allegation petition of the Kogi Central Senator, Natasha.

In an interview with News Central, on Wednesday, concerning the clash she had with Deputy Chief Whip of the Senate, Onyekachi Nwaebonyi, during the Ethics and Privileges Committee hearing, the former Minister stressed the need to protect the integrity of the institution through transparency.

Ezekwesili noted the Senate as lawmakers should avoid being lawbreakers. She added that such act would be a ruin to the nation’s democracy.

Her words: “On the matter of the way forward, I think that rather than dodge this matter, a public institution, the highest lawmaking organ in our democracy, must get the feedback from the citizens.

“They want accountability. They want accountability. And therefore, we expect the Senate to, in a closed session amongst themselves, realize that this issue has terribly, terribly reduced the integrity of that public institution and those that sit in it.

“They need to know that if they continue to use the rules of the Senate as a tool for dodging accountability to our society on a matter of fair hearing and on a matter of granting opportunity to seek redress and justice by one who alleges injury, what they are saying to us is that they are the ruining block of our democracy. How can those who should uphold the sanctity of democratic principles, norms, ethos, and constitutional provisions be the ones ruining things? How can the lawbreakers become the major lawbreakers?”