Suspended Senator representing Kogi Central, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, appeared at the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court in Maitama, Abuja, on Wednesday for her arraignment on charges of criminal defamation.
Akpoti-Uduaghan arrived at the courtroom around 10:30 a.m., ahead of the 11:00 a.m. hearing, and awaited the arrival of the presiding judge. The case, filed by the Director of Public Prosecutions of the Federation, Mohammed Abubakar, was instituted on behalf of the Federal Government.
In the criminal suit marked CR/297/25, the Federal Government accuses the senator of making defamatory statements against Senate President Godswill Akpabio and former Kogi State Governor Yahaya Bello during a live television appearance on Channels TV’s Politics Today on April 3, 2025.
According to the charge, Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan alleged that Akpabio and Bello conspired to orchestrate her assassination, disguising it as a mob attack in Kogi State. She was quoted as saying during the broadcast:
“Let’s ask the Senate President why he withdrew my security in the first place, if not to make me vulnerable to attacks. He emphasised that I should be killed — but I should be killed in Kogi. What matters to me is staying alive because dead men tell no tales.”
The prosecution claims that these statements were made with full knowledge of their potential to damage the reputations of those involved.
Additionally, she is alleged to have made further claims about the former governor, stating:
“It was part of the meeting, the discussions that Akpabio had with Yahaya Bello that night, to eliminate me… he then emphasised that I should be killed in Kogi.”
The Federal Government also cites another allegation made during a phone conversation with one Sandra C. Duru on March 27, 2025, where the senator reportedly linked Senator Akpabio to the death of Iniubong Umoren. The statement allegedly claimed the victim’s organs were harvested for Akpabio’s ailing wife.
The prosecution maintains that Akpoti-Uduaghan either knew or should have known that her statements could gravely damage the reputations of both Akpabio and Bello. Both men, along with four others, have been listed as prosecution witnesses in the case.
