Hot SourceFresh signs of reconciliation emerged on Tuesday as security operatives and the Sergeant-at-Arms of the National Assembly unlocked the Senate Office 205 of embattled Kogi Central lawmaker, Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan of the PDP.
This action effectively restores her entry into the National Assembly complex, ending months of restricted access.
The move signals that the lingering rift between Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan and Senate President Godswill Akpabio is easing.
According to parliamentary sources, the leadership of the upper chamber reached the decision at a closed-door meeting on Monday.
A motion is expected to be presented when plenary resumes on 7 October 2025, with Senate Minority Leader Abba Moro tipped to formally move for her reinstatement after a public apology.
Akpoti-Uduaghan was suspended for six months in March 2025 following a heated protest over the reallocation of her seat on 20 February 2025.
She was removed as Chair of the Senate Committee on Diaspora and NGOs and barred from all 10th Senate activities for alleged breaches of the chamber’s Standing Orders.
Although the suspension technically lapsed in September, the senator remained locked out amid court battles and opposition from Senate leadership. She challenged the sanction in court, but initial efforts to overturn it failed.
In July, however, Justice Binta Nyako of the Federal High Court in Abuja ruled that the lengthy suspension was “excessive and unconstitutional,” warning it left her constituents unrepresented. Despite the judgment, the Senate insisted she must serve the entire suspension period.
Legal pressure mounted earlier this month when her counsel, Michael Jonathan Numa (SAN), wrote to the Clerk to the National Assembly (CNA), Kamorudeen Ogunlana, demanding her reinstatement by 15 September 2025 or face contempt and disciplinary proceedings.
Ogunlana responded that he lacked the constitutional authority to reverse Senate decisions, stressing that only the chamber itself could act on the matter.
A follow-up statement by NASS Information Director Bullah Audu Bi-Allah reinforced that the CNA’s office is purely administrative and cannot override Senate resolutions.
