Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, representing Kogi Central, has raised concerns over what she described as her exclusion from a Senate committee session on the 2026 budget proposal of the North Central Development Commission (NCDC).
In a statement issued on Tuesday, the lawmaker said the Senate Committee on the NCDC, chaired by Titus Zam, convened to deliberate on the Commission’s 2026 budget without notifying or inviting her to participate.
Akpoti-Uduaghan said she became aware of the meeting only about 20 minutes before it ended and immediately went to the National Assembly of Nigeria complex. Upon arrival, she reportedly met members of the NCDC management leaving the Senate complex and proceeded to the committee room, where she was informed by staff that the session had already concluded.
The senator stated that when she demanded an explanation for her absence from the meeting, she was told by committee staff that it may have been an oversight by the clerk. However, after requesting the attendance register, she claimed her name was not listed among senators from the North Central zone.
She described the omission as deliberate and said she later visited the chairman’s office to seek clarification, arguing that the development amounted to sidelining her and her constituents from a budgetary process affecting the region.
According to her statement, Senator Zam maintained that being a senator from the North Central zone does not automatically confer membership of the committee and that committee participation follows established protocols.
Akpoti-Uduaghan 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 return.
The senator said she would continue to pursue lawful avenues to ensure Kogi Central is not excluded from development initiatives tied to the North Central Development Commission, stressing that her mandate is derived from her constituents.
There was no immediate official response from the committee chairman at the time of filing this report.
