Fresh indications of reconciliation surfaced on Tuesday as security operatives and the Sergeant-at-Arms of the National Assembly reopened Senate Office 205, belonging to embattled Kogi Central senator, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The reopening restores her access to the National Assembly complex after months of restricted entry, suggesting that tensions with Senate President Godswill Akpabio are beginning to ease.
Parliamentary sources confirmed that the Senate leadership reached the decision at a closed-door meeting on Monday. A motion is expected to be presented when plenary resumes on October 7, with Senate Minority Leader Abba Moro tipped to formally move for her reinstatement following a public apology.
Akpoti-Uduaghan was suspended for six months in March 2025 after a heated protest over the reallocation of her seat on February 20. She was stripped of her position as Chair of the Senate Committee on Diaspora and NGOs and barred from all 10th Senate activities for alleged breaches of the chamber’s Standing Orders.
Though the suspension technically lapsed in September, the lawmaker remained locked out as she pursued legal battles against the leadership. Her initial efforts to overturn the sanction failed.
In July, Justice Binta Nyako of the Federal High Court in Abuja faulted the extended suspension, ruling that it was “excessive and unconstitutional,” and warning that it left her constituents unrepresented. However, the Senate insisted that she must serve the full suspension period.
Mounting legal pressure intensified earlier this month when her counsel, Michael Jonathan Numa (SAN), wrote to the Clerk to the National Assembly (CNA), Kamorudeen Ogunlana, demanding her reinstatement by September 15 or face contempt and disciplinary proceedings.
Ogunlana replied that he had no constitutional authority to reverse Senate decisions, noting that only the chamber itself could act. A follow-up statement from NASS Information Director Bullah Audu Bi-Allah emphasized that the CNA’s role remained strictly administrative and could not override Senate resolutions.
