The federal government said on Friday that it is negotiating with the leadership of the National Assembly to broker peace over the recent suspension of the Senator representing Kogi Central Senatorial District, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan.
“We are engaging stakeholders to ensure that they temper justice with mercy,” the Minister of Women Affairs, Mrs Iman Suleiman-Ibrahim, told State House correspondents during a Meet-the-Press Programme at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Her comments come barely 24 hours after the 10th Senate suspended Akpoti-Uduaghan for six months.
The lawmaker had submitted a petition alleging that she had been sexually harassed by the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio.
Akpoti-Uduaghan first raised the alarm on February 28.
However, the 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, the minister said, “It is an unfortunate incident that should not happen. In the last Assembly, we had nine senators that were women.
“We don’t want to be losing any female member in the Senate or decrease in the number.
“We are going to broker peace. We will engage all stakeholders to ensure that they temper justice with mercy.”
Suleiman-Ibrahim said she is emboldened by the Senate president’s openness to talk.
“I was at the National Assembly yesterday where we marked the International Women’s Day.
“The last thing the Senate president said was that ‘we are open to broker peace.’
“So we are going to be the intermediary between the two parties to see that we broker peace; for peace to reign, and then we will continue to sensitise everyone so that we learn to work better together as women and men,” she said.
