The Chairman of the Senate Committee on North Central Development Commission NCDC Senator Titus Zam has dismissed claims by Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan that she was sidelined from a key budget defence session of the commission

The confrontation reportedly occurred in Zam’s office after a meeting between the committee and leaders of the NCDC Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan representing Kogi Central had accused the committee of deliberately excluding her from the proceedings and from internal communication channels

In a video that circulated widely online she was seen raising her voice and protesting what she described as an attempt to undermine her constituents She later reiterated her position in a statement on her Instagram page arguing that as a senator from the North Central region she ought to have been part of the meeting and of the committee’s communication platforms

Senator Zam however maintained that Akpoti-Uduaghan has no formal role on the NCDC committee and therefore had no basis to attend the budget defence session or expect her name on the attendance register

She is not a member of the committee and was not invited to the budget defence meeting he said According to him Kogi State already has two senators on the committee Senator Isah Jibrin who serves as vice chairman and Senator Sunday Karimi as a member

Zam explained that membership of development commission committees is not restricted to lawmakers from the regions they cover but is instead spread across geopolitical zones in line with the principle of national character He cited Plateau State as an example noting that Senator Pam Mwadkon is not on the NCDC committee while Senators Diket Plang and Simon Lalong are

He accused Akpoti-Uduaghan of wrongly assuming that her North Central origin automatically entitled her to a seat on the committee describing her claim as ignorant

Zam said a brief argument followed in his office after she arrived hours after the budget defence had ended to protest her exclusion He stated that he advised her to take her grievance to the Senate Committee on Selection which is responsible for assigning senators to committees

After a back-and-forth movement she left my office he said bringing the tense encounter to a close but leaving the wider debate over committee representation and regional interests very much alive within the Senate