Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, the suspended Nigeria Senator has alleged that Godswill Akpabio, the Senate President asked her to harass ministers and heads of agencies in exchange for kickbacks and favours for his personal benefit.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with US-based Nigerian journalist Adeola Fayehun, Akpoti-Uduaghan detailed what she noted as systemic coercion within the National Assembly, alleging that as the then chairman of the Senate committee on Local Content, she was expected to extract returns from ministries and agencies under her oversight, including the Minister of Petroleum,Gas, and the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB).
She disclosed that her relationship with the Senate President began to sour when he demanded her to “report progress”.
Believing this to mean a formal presentation of her work, she said she prepared a PowerPoint document outlining meetings, action plans and timelines, but Akpabio laughed off the 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 Natasha, the senior Senator told her that reporting progress meant “I should return, I should give kickbacks to him. Money, projects, other perks.”
“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”, she said.
“I was like, I can’t do that. And they were like, well, that’s the norm under him,” she added.
She 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.”
Akpoti-Uduaghan said the Senate President’s idea of deliverables are 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 said 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.”
She further distanced herself from widespread public suspicion that lawmakers engage in budget padding. “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, which she said she is still seeking an opportunity to formally present 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.
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 which has since escalated into a series of legal battles.
