Activist lawyer, Maduabuchi Idam, on Thursday criticized Nigerians celebrating Senate President Godswill Akpabio following Senate’s refusal to allow suspended Kogi Central Senator, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan to resume.
Idam said those celebrating Akpabio are enablers of oppression in Nigeria, stressing that the senate should not be operated as a military contonement.
He warned that no senator should be allowed to assume the role of a Lord over his colleagues.
In a statement he signed, Idam said: “Those who celebrate the Senate President for frustrating the return of Natasha to the Senate despite serving out her wrongful suspension— are to me, the enablers of oppression in Nigeria.
“I see an attempt to replicate the Fubara’s template in the National Assembly against Natasha. That should not be encouraged, it is not the best democratic experiment.
“The Senate should not be operated as a Military Cantonment where dissenting views are considered mutinous.
“The Nigerian Constitution designed the National Assembly as a safe place for heated deliberations. It has to operate in that manner just like every other democratic country of the world.
“No Senator has to see himself as a boss or lord himself over other members of the Assembly. Personal rifts should be resolved on the streets outside the senate.
“If other members of the National Assembly do not prevail upon the senate’s leadership to allow the return of Natasha, the freedom to speak on the floor of the senate would be at serious risk.”
