The Chairman of the Labour Party in Lagos State, Dayo Ekong, has shown solidarity for Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan amid her row with Senate President Godswill Akpabio.
Ekong lent Natasha her support in a statement on Friday morning following the suspension of the latter from the Senate for six months.In a statement titled “A betrayal of justice”, Ekong said she is standing with Senator Natasha and Nigerian women in general.“As Chairman of the Lagos State Labour Party, I speak with a mix of outrage and sorrow at the grievous injustice unfolding in our National Assembly. Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, a voice courageously alleging sexual harassment by Senate President Godswill Akpabio, has been suspended for six months—not for her accusations to be investigated, but for daring to speak them,” she lamented.
“The Ethics Committee dismissed her petition on procedural technicalities, then punished her for “ridiculing” the Senate. This is not justice; it is a grotesque perversion of it.“If a sitting senator—one of only four women in a chamber of 109—can be silenced, suspended, and barred from her office for seeking accountability, what does this mean for ordinary Nigerian women? The market trader harassed by police, the student preyed upon by lecturers, the domestic worker abused with no platform to scream?”
She stated that Natasha’s suspension is not merely political, it is a symbol of the oppression faced by every woman gaslit into silence.“To the public, we say: demand better. To institutions, we say: investigate transparently. To those in power, we say: your legacy will be defined by whether you uphold equity or entrench injustice,” Ekong said.“The Labour Party Lagos State condemns this blatant disregard for accountability and gender equality. We call on all Nigerians to reject a system that punishes the victim and protects the powerful.“We must all lend our voices to this injustice. We must create a system,one where no woman, whether senator or student, is silenced again.”
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