The federal government on Friday announced it would intervene in the leadership crisis in the Senate after the suspension of the senator representing Kogi Central Senatorial District, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan.
“We’re engaging all the stakeholders to ensure that they temper justice with mercy,” the Minister of Women Affairs, Mrs. Iman Suleiman-Ibrahim, told State House correspondents during the Meet-the-Press Programme at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
These move comments came barely 24 hours after the 10th Senate suspended Natasha for six months.
Natasha had submitted a petition alleging she had been sexually harassed by the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio.
However, the Akpabio Senate dismissed her petition on procedural grounds as the ethics committee recommended her suspension, saying she had brought ridicule to the upper chamber.
Reacting to the development in the Senate, the women affairs minister said, “It’s an unfortunate incident that should not happen. In the last Assembly, we had nine senators who were women.
“We don’t want to lose any woman member in the Senate or decrease in number.
“We’re going to be brokering peace. We’ll engage all the stakeholders to ensure that they temper justice with mercy.”
Suleiman-Ibrahim stated that she was emboldened by the Senate President’s openness to talk.
“I was at the National Assembly yesterday, at the Senate, where we marked International Women’s Day.
“The last thing the Senate president said was that ‘we’re open to broker peace.’
“So, we’re going to be the intermediary between the two parties to see that we broker peace, for peace to reign, and then we’ll continue to sensitize everyone so that we learn to work better together as women and men.”
