President Tulia Ackson of the UN Inter-Parliamentary Union on Tuesday said the international panel can and will only take action over Natasha Akpoti’s sexual harassment claim after hearing Senate President Godswill Akpabio’s side of the matter.

Mrs Akpoti-Uduaghan was at the UN Headquarters in New York on Tuesday to draw attention to her six-month suspension at the Nigerian parliament, which she deemed unfair, given that Mr Akpabio —her alleged sexual harasser — is still presiding over the Senate without investigation.

She also alleged a plot by over 100 senators to silence her for daring to accuse Mr Akpabio of victimisation and abuse of office after she declined to have an affair with him.

Ms Ackson said Mrs Akpoti-Uduaghan’s concerns were duly noted but that the UN IPU must hear Mr Akpabio’s side of the matter before taking a decision.

“As an institution, as IPU, we will be taking the concerns that have been raised,” said Ms Ackson, who is from Tanzania and became the UN IPU president in 2023. “Not only taking her side but also giving a chance to listen to the other side as it is a custom for IPU. And after having listened to the other side, we will take steps as necessary.”

“We have taken the concerns that she raised, and we will be working on them, of course,  having listened to the other side, and we will be able to take steps after that,” the UN IPU president stressed.

Mr Akpabio last week denied the sexual harassment allegations, asserting that he was a man who had a good upbringing and would never harass women, let alone his colleague.

Mr Akpabio’s wife has similarly released a statement defending her husband, that he is not a man to chase after other ladies. 

In July 2024, Mr Akpabio rebuked Mrs Akpoti-Uduaghan for speaking without permission, stating that the National Assembly “is not a nightclub.” 

He apologised days later —after multiple pro-women groups criticised his comment.

Neda Imasuen, chair of the Senate Committee on Ethics, who recommended Mrs Akpoti-Uduaghan’s suspension, was disbarred by the New York Supreme Court in 2010 for absconding with a client’s funds without representation.

Peoples Gazette exclusively reported that the FBI was also on Mr Imasuen’s heels and linked him to a vast fraud that bilked more than $25 million from a host of financial institutions, including Wells Fargo, Citi Bank and so on across the U.S. 

Judge Kiyo Matsumoto of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in Brooklyn identified Mr Imasuen as “an unindicted co-conspirator who executed allegedly fraudulent transactions,” which lasted between 2008 and 2009.

While Mr Imasuen fled to Nigeria to evade justice, Ms Matsumoto subsequently tried and sentenced his co-conspirator, Imran Ismile Badoolah, to 30 months’ imprisonment.

Mr Imasuen’s corruption-tainted past, which recently came to light, has drawn the ire of Nigerians who deem him morally unfit to head the Senate ethics committee.