By Dr. Tonye Clinton Jaja
In the past few days including today, I have been inundated with telephone calls, and messages on WHATSAPP.
Nobody is calling me to ask how I am faring, all calls and messages are questions about:”Dr. Jaja when are you going to write something about what is happening at the Rivers State House of Assembly or the suspension of Senator Natasha by the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria?”!!!
Today, I received two telephone calls on WhatsApp by two serving Senators of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Both of them are lawyers but one of them is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria-SAN.
They both spoke about the issue of Senator Natasha’s suspension.
The Senior Advocate of Nigeria-SAN admitted that it is true that there is a lacuna within the Standing Orders of the Senate, 2023 (as amended) considering that it does not specifically provide for how to handle issues of sexual harassment.
The Learned Senior Advocate of Nigeria-SAN suggested that the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria ought to enacted and institute a Sexual Harassment Policy which should deal with the circumstance when a FALSE ALLEGATION OF SEXUAL HARASSMENT IS MADE AGAINST ANY SENATOR.
The Learned Senior Advocate of Nigeria-SAN did not permit me to ask him a vital question before he went off the phone.
Since it is admitted that the current Standing Orders of the Senate, 2023 does not contain specific provisions regarding allegations of sexual harassment against serving Senators, is it constitutional, legally correct, fair and equitable to penalise Senator Natasha for an offence that is not yet defined in any written law?
Section 36 (12) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 is very clear on this matter when it states that: “no person shall be penalised for any offence, unless such an offence is defined in a written law and the penalty prescribed therein”.
This constitutional provision was upheld by the Supreme Court of Nigeria in the case of Aoko vs. Fagbemi (1962) wherein it was stated that one of the parties cannot be penalised for the offence of bigamy (marrying two husbands) since there is no written law to that effect.
On the other aspect of the “crime” of Senator Natasha of not sitting in a seat allocated to her and speaking out of turn, without approval of the Senate President, it is a known principle of justice that the penalty should not outweigh the alleged crime.
In the case of Senator Ali Ndume vs. Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (2018), the Court of Appeal held that it is unconstitutional to impose a suspension exceeding 14 days upon any Senator. The reason is because the constituents would suffer from lack of representation by the suspended Senator during the said period of suspension.
Another principle of justice and fair hearing that was not observed during today’s plenary of the Senate is the opportunity for a PLEA OF ALLOCUTUS by the accused person or their representative!!!
Senator Abba Moro is the only person that is on record to have pleased for a reduced sentence of three months instead of six months.
When Senator Natasha raises her voice to appeal to the Senate President to allow her to speak, she was not allowed by the Senate President to speak.
Senator Michael Opeyemi Bamidele (MOB) is the person who was given enough time to ventilate.
During his long speech, which turned out to be a Felix culpa, he revealed a lot of behind the scenes motivations for the punishment meted out against Senator Natasha.
The dictionary defines “Felix Culpa” as “an apparent error or disaster with happy consequences.
“he presents the revolt as a felix culpa”.
So the speech by Senator Bamidele was a “Felix Culpa”, a “happy fault” that revealed the motivations behind the whole saga.
He admitted that he had phoned Senator Natasha at around midnight and in the presence of both the Senate President and Natasha’s husband, he asked Natasha: “what will you gain, (what do you intend to achieve) if you bring down the Senate President with all these your talks on TV and social media?”
That statement is very DEEP AND REVEALING!!!
So during the said phone call the focus was not on the “crime” of Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan’s refusal to sit on the seat allocated to her inside the chambers of the Senate?
It was not about the shouting of Senator Natasha and raising a point of order without waiting for the Senate President to call on her?
Apparently, the egos of both the Senate President and Senator Bamidele were DEEPLY HURT by Senator Natasha’s refusal to back down with her allegations of sexual harassment especially after the said telephone call.
Moreso, as Senator Bamidele himself admitted the Senate President had offered Natasha’s husband a nomination to a very important position. A gesture that was usually reserved for Governors and other high ranking members of the same political camp as the Senate President himself.
To conclude, Senator Bamidele’s speech sounded like the speech by the biblical character named Pontius Pilate. Ironically, instead of succeeding in persuading the mob to set Jesus Christ free, it had the opposite effect of inciting the mob to demand with renewed vigour the execution of an innocent man, Jesus Christ.
It would have been better if Senator Bamidele had not spoken because the Senators were previously considering the option of imposing a reduced suspension of three months upon Senator Natasha.
However, in accordance with the acronym MOB, Senator Bamidele incited the mob to go for the maximum penalty!!!
Dr. Tonye Clinton Jaja
Executive Director,
Nigerian Law Society (NLS)
