The lawmaker representing Kogi Central Senatorial District, Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, has debunked allegations that she was out to destroy the “Yoruba federal government of Bola Ahmed Tinubu.”
This is in response to the allegations by Sandra Duru, who alleged that the lawmaker told her she was out to destroy Tinubu’s Yoruba government.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with US-based Nigerian journalist Adeola Fayehun, Akpoti-Uduaghan explained that she never made such a statement, as she’s not a tribalist.
The lawmaker noted that such utterances are not part of her language or nature.
“People who know me know that I am not a tribalist. I respect and appreciate every tribe in Nigeria, every ethnicity.
“I am half Nigerian and half Ukrainian—who am I to talk about tribe when I am actually one part of the other world? That is not my nature; that is not my language.
“If anybody said that, it’s probably her team, the people who have sponsored her. Her sponsors are the ones who have probably put those words to her because they knew that I had enjoyed a lot of support from Nigerians—not just in Kogi State, but across the country and even in the diaspora.
“The Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, also knows that I enjoyed a good relationship with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. I have not said it in the open before, but I am saying it now, and that actually annoyed him because there was a time when the Senate President told my husband, ‘Are you aware that your wife goes to see the President?’ and my husband told him he was aware.”
“Whenever I have critical issues to raise—like before I brought up the issue of probing Ajaokuta—I did meet with Mr. President to make sure he knew the nature of it, and he was okay with it. For other matters too, I have met him in person. So, I do not have a hostile relationship with the President, even though I am in the opposition. I keep saying, the good people of Kogi Central voted me as a Senator to work, not to antagonize or create enmity.
“I want the people to know my issue is with the Senate President—not the entire Senate, the Nigerian people, the institutions, or the Presidency,” she said.
