Senate President Godswill Akpabio has dismissed accusations by Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan (Kogi Central) that she was treated “like a slave and domestic servant” in the upper legislative chamber.

 

Akpoti-Uduaghan, who regained access to the National Assembly on Tuesday, had told journalists that Akpabio ran the Senate like a dictator and subjected her to humiliating treatment.

 

Reacting through his media aide, Kenny Okolugbo—Consultant, Communication and Strategy, Office of the Senate President—Akpabio described the claims as false, insisting that the lawmaker had enjoyed exceptional privileges since joining the Senate.

 

Speaking on Channels TV, Okolugbo highlighted that Akpoti-Uduaghan was inaugurated on November 2, 2023, and by November 20 had already been appointed Chairman of the Senate Committee on Local Content. By January 2024, she became a member of the International Public Parliamentary Union and was also appointed to the ECOWAS Parliament.

 

Okolugbo added that within her first year, she sponsored three bills, and even during her suspension, her bill establishing a Federal Medical Center in Kogi State was passed into law.

 

“How many senators have bills that have been passed into law?” Okolugbo asked. “So how would she now say that she was being treated as a slave?”