Nigerian Lawyer, Maxwell Okpara, has said that Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan’s sexual harassment petition against Senate President Godswill Akpabio was struck out because she breached the rules and laws guiding the National Assembly before presenting her case.
Speaking in an interview with ARISE NEWS, Okpara explained that the petition was deemed “fundamentally defective” as Akpoti-Uduaghan signed it herself, which is not permitted under the National Assembly’s rules.
He noted that while Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan has the right to present her case, she did not follow the correct legislative process, making the petition invalid.
Okpara said, “If you have a good case, you feel that you have a case, you want to present it, why rush it to the media? Why didn’t you prepare yourself, go through the rules, prepare a petition, submit it in the house so that the house can investigate the matter? Lucky enough, you can even go to the police. Lucky enough, the Senate President is not under immunity. He can be investigated by the police.
“Now, after the media, a lot of issues now came up, you now came back to the National Assembly to present the petition. And that petition is defective. Just like, as I am now, if you are going to court and you do not follow the rules of court to file your processes, it will be struck out and you will go and refile.
“Now, the position there is that the Senate now has hinted, Senator Natasha Akpoti, the petition you brought in is being signed by you. You cannot sign the petition in line with the rules. That one is on that.”
He went on to add, “It is her fundamental right to present her case. What we are talking about is the procedure. If you have a good case and you channel it from a very wrong angle, you are going to lose it. There is a procedure for the Senate, which you are expected to follow. Did you follow the procedure? That one is no. Because the petition which you submitted is defective. And that was the reason why they said it is dead on arrival, because it is defective. It is fundamentally defective. They will strike it out. You will go and represent it.”
Speaking on the issue of the Senate ignoring the court’s order restraining the senate committee on ethics, privileges, and public petitions from conducting disciplinary proceedings against Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan, Okpara said, “On the issue of court, we continue to say it. When a matter is being filed in court to stop a particular arm of government from carrying out their own function in line with the Constitution, you don’t grant such application via ex parte. I will continue to say it.
“But whichever that is the case, once an order of court is made, no matter how stupid you feel that that order may be, it must be complied with. Now, the question there is that, was that order made by the Court of Competent Jurisdiction? The answer is yes. Was it served on the National Assembly? Upon receiving that order of court, the National Assembly is expected to suspend every other matter that has to do with that, at least to go back to the court, now that the judge adjourned the matter till Friday, to challenge the jurisdiction of the court to hear that particular matter. They shouldn’t have rushed in.
“Courts have no right whatsoever to stop the National Assembly. But what we are talking about is that now that the order is already there, we have given to you, you people should address yourself, say that this particular order should be vacated. And if need be, you can send a petition to NJC against the judge that issued that order. We are talking about procedure,” he added.
Okpara’s comments came as the Senate Committee on Ethics, Code of Conduct and Public Petitions, on Wednesday, threw out Akpoti-Uduaghan’s petition against Akpabio, after Akpabio, at Wednesday’s plenary, asked the committee to commence investigation into the allegation of sexual harassment levelled against him.
