Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, currently under suspension from the Nigerian Senate, has accused Senate President Godswill Akpabio of instructing her to harass ministers and heads of agencies in exchange for personal kickbacks and favors.
In an exclusive interview with US-based Nigerian journalist Adeola Fayehun, Akpoti-Uduaghan described what she termed systemic coercion within the National Assembly.
As the then chairman of the Senate Committee on Local Content, she alleges she was expected to extract financial returns from ministries and agencies under her oversight, including the Minister of Petroleum, Minister of Gas, and the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB).
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She revealed that her relationship with Akpabio began to sour when he demanded she “report progress.” Believing this meant a formal presentation of her committee’s work, she prepared a PowerPoint document detailing meetings, action plans, and timelines. However, she claims Akpabio laughed off her report.
“I was like, oh, why are you laughing, sir? He said don’t I know the meaning of reporting progress. And then he now referred me to a senior Senator. He said, why don’t you go meet this person and let him educate you on what report progress means,” she recounted.
According to Akpoti-Uduaghan, the senior Senator explained that “reporting progress” meant she “should return, I should give kickbacks to him. Money, projects, other perks.”
She further clarified, “So it’s more like the Senate president tasking the chairman of all the committees that periodically, they’re supposed to bring money to him or jobs. And for me, since I was in content, that means I have the minister of petroleum, I have also the minister of gas. Then I also have the executive secretary, engineer Felix. So that means I’m supposed to harass them for returns to periodically give money to the Senate president or jobs.”
Akpoti-Uduaghan stated, “I was like, I can’t do that. And they were like, well, that’s the norm under him.”
She also claimed that Akpabio himself confronted her, saying, “If you don’t know how to harass the ministers and the executive secretary of local content, that means you’re not capable of running the committee.”
She asserted that the Senate President’s idea of “deliverables” is “not tied to objectivity and performance, but more like what returns come to him.”
Natasha also alleged that Akpabio repeatedly asked her to bring the executive secretary to meet with him, requests she says she refused.
“To date, I never took or I never forced or coerced any of the ministers to meet with him. If they met the Senate President on their own, I don’t know about that. That’s just to give you an idea of the coercion that happens behind the scenes that people don’t know.”
Akpoti-Uduaghan distanced herself from widespread public suspicion of budget padding among lawmakers, stating, “I don’t know about it. I’ve never padded budget, but I’ve seen the unnecessary pressure that a number of senators have to face, not because they were willing to do it for themselves, but because they have to satisfy some political lords right in the Senate.”
The Senator reaffirmed her earlier allegations of sexual harassment, stating she is still seeking an opportunity to formally present them before a court or investigative panel.
“I stand by my sexual abuse. I will never apologise. I’m not afraid of what will happen, and I will not apologise,” she declared.
Akpoti-Uduaghan was suspended from the Senate in March 2025 for allegedly violating parliamentary rules.
Following her suspension, she publicly accused Senate President Godswill Akpabio of sexual harassment, leading to a series of legal battles.
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