Natasha alleges deliberate exclusion from NCDC budget meeting

Senator Natasha H Akpoti Uduaghan has accused the Senate leadership of deliberately sidelining her from a key budget interface session between the Senate Committee on the North Central Development Commission (NCDC) and the Commission’s management, describing the move as an attempt to marginalise Kogi Central from critical development decisions.

In a statement issued on Monday, the Kogi Central lawmaker said the committee meeting, chaired by Titus Zam, was held to deliberate on the NCDC’s 2026 budget proposal, but she was neither notified nor invited.

According to her, she only learned of the meeting about 20 minutes before it ended and rushed to the National Assembly of Nigeria complex. By the time she arrived, members of the Commission’s management were already leaving the Senate wing.

She said she proceeded to the committee room to join the session but was informed by staff that the meeting had concluded.

Akpoti-Uduaghan further alleged that when she requested the attendance register, her name was not listed among senators from the North Central zone, a development she described as a “deliberate omission” rather than an administrative oversight.

“I was not notified, not invited, my name was excluded from the committee register, and I was not added to the Senate’s NCDC communication platform where official information is shared,” she said.

The senator said she confronted Chairman Zam in his office to seek clarification. She quoted him as saying that being a senator from the North Central region does not automatically confer membership of the committee and that the committee operates under specific protocols and instructions.

She also alleged that a phone used by her staff to document the exchange was briefly seized and handed to the chairman before she demanded its immediate return.

Describing the incident as part of a broader pattern of obstruction since her return to the Senate, Akpoti-Uduaghan maintained that any effort to exclude her amounts to silencing the people of Kogi Central.

She vowed to pursue “every lawful avenue” to ensure her district benefits from development initiatives tied to the Commission.

“No district should be excluded. No voice should be suppressed. No mandate should be diminished,” she said, adding that she would not be intimidated or retreat from her responsibilities.

Efforts to reach the committee leadership for comment were not immediately successful at the time of filing this report.