Deputy Chief Whip debunks Senator Natasha’s allegations

says Senator Akpabio never touched her

The Deputy Chief Whip of the Senate, Senator Onyekachi Nwaebonyi, on Monday, dismissed the sexual harassment allegation Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan levelled against the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio.

Senator Natasha, representing Kogi Central, had recently accused the Senate President of sexually harassing her when she and other senators visited his house to celebrate his birthday in December 2023.

She made this accusation while appearing on Arise TV’s ‘The Morning Show’ on Friday, February 28, 2025.

On the show, she had recounted how Akpabio allegedly requested an intimate relationship while showing her the interior of his Ikot-Ekpene residence.

She said the Senate President made the same request again when she went to his office to ask him why her move to raise a motion about Ajaokuta Steel Company was not being considered.

However, Senator Onyekachi Nwaebonyi rejected Senator Natasha’s claim, saying the Senate President did not move close to her on his birthday.

Speaking on Arise TV on Monday, March 3, 2025, the Senator said he also attended Senator Akpabio’s birthday party, along with some other lawmakers, and he stated that the Senate President did not sexually harass Senator Natasha that day.

On the programme, he said he was speaking as an eye-witness to the event which took place on December 8, 2023.

He gave a run-down of events from the Senator Attah Airport where he said he was in the same vehicle as Senator Natasha and her husband.

Senator Onyekachi claimed that they attended a series of programmes with the Senate President within Uyo, before they moved to Ikot-ekpene, the hometown of the Senate President.

He recounted how Senator Natasha complained about pains from her shoes, when they were alighting from the vehicle, so that she and her husband had to stay back while he rushed inside to join other senators to inspect the building of the Senate President.

Nwaebonyi maintained that Senator Natasha did not join her colleagues when Akpabio was taking them around the house, adding that the Senate President did not touch Natasha, let alone ask her to come and have a good time at his residence.

He said she sat at the parlour of the house with her husband while the house inspection was going on.

He added that the Senate President took them around, and also took them to the chapel, and called those who were Catholic Senators to join him in a Holy Mass.

According to him, after the Holy Mass they all ended up in the garden as the Senate President hosted them. He insisted that there was never a time when the Senate President touched Senator Natasha.

He claimed that Senator Natasha came up with the sexual harassment allegation against Akpabio because the Senate President moved her to another seat.

“It is disheartening and unbelievable for a Senator of the Federal republic to, out of mere provocation — simply because you were given a new seat and probably your committee was changed — get up to lay a false allegation against a man that is old enough to be your father,” the Senator alleged.

When asked what step the Senate is taking on the matter, Nwaebonyi said, “The Senate can’t act on hearsay. Senator Natasha has never presented any issue before us.”

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