Lawyers to Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan have threatened to drag the Clerk of the National Assembly to court if he fails to allow her resumption.
In a letter signed by Michael Numa, SAN, the legal team said the Clerk’s claim that her resumption is blocked by “sub judice” was a misuse of the rule.
They warned that failure to comply by September 15 would lead to contempt proceedings and other legal actions against him in his personal and official capacity.
The lawyers argued that the Constitution does not empower the clerk or the Senate to extinguish the sovereign will of the people by administrative action.
Part of the letter read: “It is imperative to restate that our client’s right to resume her parliamentary duties, after the expiration of her fixed-term suspension, is rooted in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) and cannot be abridged by administrative fiat or internal Senate manoeuvrings.
“As Clerk of the National Assembly, you are not an elected member of the Senate. Your functions are purely ministerial: to record, transmit, and implement decisions duly made by the Senate or directed by the courts.
“Our demand is that you immediately facilitate Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan’s resumption of her legislative duties without further obstruction.”