Nigerian human rights lawyer, Maxwell Opara has expressed doubt over Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan’s allegations of sexual harassment against the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio.
He raised concerns about the credibility of her claims, suggesting that inconsistencies in her account cast doubt on the seriousness of the accusations.
In an interview on Arise TV, Opara challenged the senator’s narrative, particularly regarding how she handled the alleged incident.
He questioned the timing of Senator Natasha’s allegation of sexual harassment against the Senate President, adding that it is curious why Senator Natasha did not bring up such serious allegations immediately after the incident if she genuinely believed she had been harassed.
He said that delaying such claims and making them only at a later time could be perceived as an attempt to manipulate public sentiment rather than a genuine call for justice.
He also questioned the plausibility of a senator, a wife, and a mother making such claims but initially withholding the information from her husband.
According to him, the sequence of events she described did not align with what would be expected in such a situation.
“I watched that program and I was taken back by what she said. An adult who is a senator, who is somebody’s wife and somebody’s mother, claimed a married man harassed her in the presence of her husband. When her husband asked her about what the Senate President said, she denied and she didn’t tell her husband.”
Opara pointed out contradictions in her statements, urging viewers to review the available footage to verify her shifting account. He suggested that her explanation to her husband differed from the allegations she later made in public.
This, he argued, raised concerns about whether the claim was entirely truthful or if key details had been altered.
Senator Natasha had said in an Arise TV interview last week that the Senate President had taken her to a private room in one of his residences and implied they could spend time together there.
This claim added another layer of controversy to the ongoing tensions between her and the Senate leadership. However, her allegations have been strongly disputed by those close to the Senate President.
The Senate President’s wife, Mrs. Unoma Akpabio, has publicly dismissed the accusations, asserting that there was no opportunity for her husband to engage in such an encounter. She explained that on the day in question, he was preoccupied with his birthday celebration, leaving no time for any private discussions or interactions as alleged.
With both sides presenting conflicting accounts, the situation remains a subject of intense debate and scrutiny.
