Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, the suspended senator for the Kogi Central Senatorial District, has shown up at the Federal Capital Territory High Court, Maitama, in Abuja for her arraignment on charges of defamation.
At around 10:30 a.m., Akpoti-Uduaghan arrived in the courtroom to await the presiding judge’s arrival before the session began at 11:00 a.m.
Mohammed Abubakar, the Federation’s Director of Public Prosecutions, brought the allegation against Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan on behalf of the Federal Government.
The only defendant in the criminal complaint, designated CR/297/25, is Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan, who is accused by the Federal Government of uttering disparaging remarks against Senate President Godswill Akpabio during a live television broadcast.
Godswill Akpabio, the Senate President, and Yahaya Bello, the former governor of Kogi State, are named as nominal complainants in the allegation.
According to the report, the Senator said that Bello and Akpabio had planned her murder outside of Abuja under the guise of a local or mob attack.
The Federal Government claims that these accusations were made on April 3, 2025, during a live broadcast on Channels Television’s Politics Today.
The FG contends that Akpoti-Uduaghan made these imputations wilfully or intentionally, knowing full well that they may damage the reputations of those concerned.
“Let’s ask the Senate President why in the first instance he withdrew my security, if not to make me vulnerable to attacks,” she allegedly added. I should be murdered, he said, but I should be killed in Kogi. Staying alive is what matters to me since dead guys don’t tell stories. Who will secure justice for me?
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Additionally, the charge quotes her remarks from the show: “That on or around April 3, 2025, during the same Politics Today program on Channels Television in Abuja, Federal Capital Territory, you, Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, made the following imputation concerning Yahaya Adoza Bello, former Governor of Kogi State.”
‘It was part of the meeting, the discussions that Akpabio had with Yahaya Bello that night, to eliminate me. When he met with him, he then emphasised that I should be killed, but I should be killed in Kogi.’
You were aware, or had good cause to think, that such accusations would damage the standing of former Kogi State Governor Yahaya Adoza Bello.
Additionally, it is said that on March 27, 2025, the senator spoke on the phone with Sandra C. Duru in Abuja and made disparaging remarks about Senate President Akpabio.
The alleged statement is as follows:
“That girl that was killed, what’s her name, umm Imoren Iniubong, her organs were actually used for the wife, because the wife was really ill… when they killed the girl, and her organs were used for the wife.”
The Federal Government contends that Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan knew or ought to have known that this claim would harm the reputation of Senator Godswill Akpabio.
Additionally, Akpabio, Bello, and four others have been listed as witnesses for the trial.
