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Former VP Atiku
Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar has hailed the reopening of Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan’s office at the National Assembly, describing it as a victory of unity over tyranny.
On Tuesday, the Senate, through Alabi Adedeji, Deputy Director of the Sergeant-at-Arms, unsealed Akpoti-Uduaghan’s office in Suite 2.05 of the Senate wing, paving the way for her return to legislative duties.
The office had been under lock since March 6, 2025, when she was suspended for six months over alleged breaches of the Senate’s standing rules.
Although the Federal High Court on July 4 declared the suspension “excessive and unconstitutional,” the lawmaker was repeatedly barred from resuming work, with the National Assembly insisting the matter was still in court.
Reacting in a statement, Atiku said the development is a reminder that Nigerians can only defeat oppression by standing together.
“It is reassuring that the voice of reason has prevailed at last with the unsealing of the office of Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan,” he said.
“Though the precious time denied the people of Kogi Central in the Senate can never be reclaimed, this struggle has not been in vain. It has proven, once again, that when we stand together, we can triumph over tyranny.”
The former vice-president also linked Akpoti-Uduaghan’s ordeal to what he called a broader pattern of democratic subversion under President Bola Tinubu.
“The suspension of Governor Simi Fubara and lawmakers of the Rivers State House of Assembly, the unlawful suspension of Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan, and the weaponisation of state institutions to harass and intimidate opposition voices are not isolated acts,” Atiku said.
“They are deliberate markers of the Tinubu administration’s strategy as 2027 approaches: to subvert our hard-earned democracy and compromise the will of the people at any cost.”
Atiku vowed that the opposition would continue to resist such moves through legal and democratic means.
“The opposition will do everything within the bounds of the law to protect our democracy, defend the sovereignty of the people’s mandate, and rescue our nation from the grip of authoritarianism,” he declared. (Daily Trust)
