I’ll Sue Contractor Over Faulty NASS Microphones – Akpabio Warns

President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, has threatened legal action against the contractor responsible for renovating the National Assembly complex, following persistent technical faults that continue to disrupt proceedings in both the Senate and House of Representatives chambers.

Speaking during Wednesday’s plenary, Akpabio expressed frustration over repeated microphone failures in the Senate chamber, describing the situation as a national embarrassment despite the huge public funds reportedly spent on refurbishing the legislative complex.

The Senate President said his concerns deepened after attending the opening of the 2026 National Assembly Open Week at the House of Representatives on Tuesday, where similar technical glitches disrupted proceedings.

“Distinguished colleagues, I hope you are taking note of the fact that our microphones are not working well because we are going to take action,” Akpabio said.

He added that both he and the Speaker of the House of Representatives were left embarrassed by the malfunctioning equipment during the event.

“The same contractor that handled the renovation of the House of Representatives handled this one. If this continues, we have legal steps we can take to ensure that a proper job is done because this is an embarrassment to our nation,” he said.

Akpabio revealed that the Senate leadership had begun documenting the recurring technical failures as part of preparations for possible legal action against the contractor.

“I hope you are taking note of it, so that when they go to social media to start complaining after we have taken action, you will know why we took the action. We are all witnessing what is happening,” he told lawmakers.

The latest criticism comes more than two years after legislators returned to the refurbished chambers in April 2024. Despite the multi-billion-naira renovation project, lawmakers have continued to grapple with faulty microphones, poor audio systems and recurring failures of the electronic voting platform.

The shortcomings became particularly evident during deliberations on constitutional amendment bills, including the State Police Bill, when repeated failures of the electronic voting system forced senators to abandon the digital process and conduct manual voting.

The persistent technical problems have fuelled fresh concerns over the quality of the renovation work, public accountability and the efficiency of legislative proceedings at Nigeria’s highest lawmaking