Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, representing Kogi Central, publicly ‘apologized’ to Senate President Godswill Akpabio.
This comes after she accused Akpabio of sexual harassment.
The apology was delivered in a letter laced with sarcasm, which she shared with the press in Abuja.
The senator was suspended from her duties on March 6, following a conflict over a new seating arrangement in the Senate that she claimed was intended to undermine her position.
The dispute escalated when she appeared on national television and accused Akpabio of retaliating against her for rejecting his alleged sexual advances.
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During a meeting at the United Nations in New York, Akpoti-Uduaghan raised concerns about the mistreatment she faced, including a six-month suspension, salary cuts, and the removal of her security details.
She also sought international help in holding the Nigerian Senate accountable for its actions.
The legal battle between the senator and Akpabio has led to a court order barring both parties from discussing the issue publicly until the case is resolved.
However, just two days after Akpabio visited the Vatican for Pope Francis’ funeral, Akpoti-Uduaghan sent a satirical letter to him.
In the letter, she sarcastically apologized for supposedly failing to recognize the importance of compliance over merit in her career, adding that her refusal to indulge Akpabio had disrupted the “natural order” of political dealings.
Akpoti-Uduaghan closed the letter by asserting her unwavering stance in the Senate and reiterated that her seat was earned through elections, not personal favours.
“I have reflected extensively on my unforgivable failure to recognize that legislative success in certain quarters is apparently not earned through merit, but through the ancient art of compliance — of the very personal kind.
“How remiss of me not to understand that my refusal to indulge your… “requests” was not merely a personal choice, but a constitutional violation of the unwritten laws of certain men’s entitlement. Truly, I must apologize for prioritizing competence over capitulation, vision over vanity, and the people’s mandate over private dinners behind closed doors.
“I now realize the catastrophic consequences of my actions: legislation delayed, tempers flared, and the tragic bruising of egos so large they require their own postcodes. For this disruption to the natural order of “quid pro quo,” I bow my head in fictional shame.
Please find it in your magnanimous heart — somewhere buried deep beneath layers of entitlement — to forgive this stubborn woman who mistakenly believed that her seat in the Senate was earned through elections, not erections.”
