Senate President, Sen. Godswill Akpabio, has apologised to his colleague, Sen. Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, for his comment last week about the Senate not being a nightclub.
“Distinguished Sen. Natasha, I want to apologize to you. I thought that I should offer a personal apology to you,” Akpabio said, addressing the Kogi State lawmaker on the Senate floor in Abuja on Tuesday.
Recall that while the Senate was debating a bill last Thursday, Sen. Akpoti-Uduaghan continuously interjected after she had exhausted her debate time and Akpabio was speaking.
The Senate President, in an apparent bid to caution her, asked her to stop shouting, stating that the Senate chamber was not a nightclub.
Akpabio’s comment went viral on social media, with most commentators criticizing the Senate President for using derogatory words in his exchange with Akpoti-Uduaghan.
While relaying his experience of the fallout to senators on Tuesday, Akpabio said his wife had received numerous telephone calls, with some people even threatening to “occupy her.”
Akpabio insisted that his comments were misunderstood, especially on social media. As a father of daughters and a husband, he said he would not intentionally denigrate a woman, adding, “I meant no harm.”
He further remarked that no matter how he spoke, social media would still likely find a way to take it out of context.
He said that if he had said the Senate was not a village square, it would still have been interpreted to mean that he called Akpoti-Uduaghan a “village woman.”
After apologizing to Akpoti-Uduaghan, he added, “She is a beautiful and lovely woman, and I will not intentionally denigrate her.”
