The lawmaker representing the Federal Capital Territory in the Senate, Ireti Kingibe, has criticized her colleague representing Kogi Central Senatorial District, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, over her complaints about the seating reassignment in the Senate.

Natasha expressed her displeasure during plenary after Senate President Godswill Akpabio reassigned her seating position.

She refused the reallocation of her seat and later raised her hand to speak but was denied recognition because she was not speaking from the assigned seat.

As a result, the Kogi lawmaker spoke louder in protest, accusing Akpabio of denying her privilege. The Senate unanimously voted to refer her to the Committee on Ethics, Privileges, and Public Petitions for disciplinary review.

While sharing her view in an interview on Arise TV on Friday, Natasha accused Akpabio of sexually harassing her. She alleged that the Senate President had, on two occasions, made sexual advances at her.

Reacting to Natasha’s grievances about the seating arrangement, Kingibe, who also appeared on Arise TV on Friday, criticized the Kogi Senator, saying she doesn’t follow the Senate rules.

According to Kingibe, three other female senators have been silent about the seating arrangement row because they don’t want to say anything negative about Natasha.

She noted that Natasha was not the only lawmaker whose seat was moved, adding that other lawmakers were affected by the seating reassignment.

“Silence is golden, especially when one of us is not following the rules, and as women, we did not want to come out publicly to say anything negative about her, and we were hoping all of this will blow over, as a lot of things do.

“The Senate is not a place where we are supposed to fight over trivialities like seating arrangements.

“This is about the rules of the Senate. So if I can point out that other women have been moved several times on that day, I wasn’t there, but I gathered that several men were also moved.

“The truth of the matter is, yes, the Senate is not gender-friendly, but it has been improving much better than when we first entered the Senate, I must say. And the truth of the matter is, when we make a fuss and draw the attention of the Senate President, he corrects it. Truly, the Senate can do better than he’s doing, but there’s hardly anything that’s been done to us that’s not done to other men.

“I want women to know we have to follow the rules of the institution we choose to enter, and that is mostly the point of this visit here.”