The Senate has rejected allegations that signatures of lawmakers who did not support the suspension of Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan were included in the committee report that recommended the action.
The controversy followed comments by Senator Adams Oshiomhole, who claimed during an interview on AIT that some senators whose names appeared on the report never endorsed it.
Oshiomhole specifically referenced Senator Ireti Kingibe of the Federal Capital Territory, saying she told him she only signed the attendance register at the committee meeting and did not approve the suspension report itself.
Responding to the allegation, Senate spokesperson Senator Yemi Adaramodu described the claim as surprising and unfounded.
According to him, no senator has raised any complaint about forged signatures either before or after the report was considered by the Senate.
“If Senator Kingibe had concerns about any procedure, she would have raised them on the floor of the Senate, not through a third party,” Adaramodu said.
He added that he was a member of the Senate Committee on Ethics and Public Petitions that handled the matter and insisted that no lawmaker was coerced into endorsing the report.
“Senators are independent-minded individuals. Nobody can forge a senator’s signature and expect it to go unnoticed. Such a thing has never happened in the Senate and cannot happen,” he said.
Adaramodu noted that the committee’s findings were openly debated during plenary and were subjected to public scrutiny before the suspension was approved.
While dismissing the allegation, he said the Senate would still examine Oshiomhole’s comments to determine whether there was any basis for the claim.
“We will look into it and make our position known. But as things stand, no senator has officially reported that his or her signature was forged in relation to the Natasha matter,” he stated.
The Senate’s response comes amid growing debate over the circumstances surrounding Akpoti-Uduaghan’s suspension and the processes that led to the decision.
