A Nigerian senator representing Kogi Central, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, has raised strong allegations of deliberate exclusion after she was reportedly left out of a key Senate committee meeting reviewing the 2026 budget proposal of the North Central Development Commission (NCDC).
According to a statement released by the senator, the Senate Committee session, chaired by Titus Zam, was convened to interface with NCDC management and deliberate on the commission’s 2026 budget estimates.
Akpoti-Uduaghan said she received no prior notification or invitation to attend the meeting despite representing a constituency within the North Central zone.
She stated that she only learned of the meeting approximately twenty minutes before it concluded and immediately proceeded to the National Assembly complex.
Upon arrival, she reportedly encountered members of the commission’s management leaving the premises.
Attempts to join the remaining proceedings were unsuccessful after committee staff informed her the meeting had already ended.
The senator said her concerns deepened after reviewing the attendance register, where she discovered her name was not listed among senators from the North Central zone.
She described the omission not as an administrative error but as a “deliberate exclusion of record.”
Akpoti-Uduaghan said she subsequently met with the committee chairman in his office, where she questioned what she characterized as an attempt to sideline her and, by extension, the people of Kogi Central from a budget process directly tied to regional development funding.
She outlined several issues, including lack of notification, absence of a formal invitation, exclusion from the committee register, and omission from the Senate NCDC communication platform used to circulate official information.
In her account, the chairman responded that being a senator from the North Central region does not automatically confer committee membership and that committee operations follow established protocols and instructions.
The senator further alleged that after the meeting, a mobile phone used by her staff to document the exchange was seized and handed over to the chairman, but was later returned following her protest.
Akpoti-Uduaghan described the incident as part of a broader pattern of actions aimed at frustrating and undermining her legislative work since her return to the chamber.
She vowed to pursue all lawful channels to ensure her constituency is not excluded from development initiatives tied to the commission’s mandate.
She reaffirmed her commitment to constituents in Kogi Central and Kogi State, stressing that no district should be denied representation in processes affecting regional socio-economic development.
The senator added that her mandate comes from the electorate and that she would continue to resist any procedural or political moves that diminish that mandate within the Nigerian Senate.
