Kogi Central Senator, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, has informed the Federal Excessive Court docket in Abuja that the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, and former Kogi State Governor Yahaya Bello haven’t any good fame to guard, arguing that her statements accusing them of orchestrating an assassination plot in opposition to her didn’t quantity to defamation.
Mrs Akpoti-Uduaghan made the submission in a discover of preliminary objection to ongoing cyberbullying and defamation fees filed in opposition to her by the federal authorities.
Within the objection, dated 18 September and marked CR/195/25, the senator, by her lawyer, Michael Numa, SAN, argued that each Messrs Akpabio and Bello had abused their respective workplaces.
She stated Mr Akpabio, throughout his tenure as Akwa Ibom governor, was accused of a number of incidents of violence, whereas Mr Bello was accused of mismanaging state funds when he served as Kogi governor.
The senator maintained that these allegations are extra grievous than any supposed defamation the federal government claimed she dedicated.
The applying, filed pursuant to Sections 6(6)(c), 42(1), and 174(3) of the Nigerian Structure, is supported by a 17-page affidavit deposed to by Mrs Akpoti-Uduaghan herself.
Within the affidavit, she argued that the cyberbullying and defamation fits weren’t instituted within the public curiosity, however moderately to serve the private pursuits of Messrs Akpabio and Bello.
She maintained that her statements accusing the 2 males of plotting to assassinate her have been private imputations and didn’t relate to their official capacities as public officers.
The lawmaker additional alleged that the police didn’t conduct any credible investigation earlier than the federal authorities proceeded to file the fees in opposition to her.
Mrs Akpoti-Uduaghan acknowledged that she would, within the subsequent elements of her affidavit, tender documentary proof to show that the fees amounted to an abuse of the authorized and prosecutorial powers of the Lawyer-Common of the Federation, insisting that the prosecution was politically motivated.
The defamation fees
The federal authorities has filed two separate felony circumstances in opposition to Mrs Akpoti-Uduaghan.
The primary case, marked CR/297/25, was filed on 16 Could beneath Part 391 of the Penal Code Legislation, Cap 89, Legal guidelines of the Federation, 1990, which criminalises making damaging imputations in opposition to one other individual’s fame. She was charged earlier than the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Excessive Court docket.
The cost adopted an interview she granted on Channels Tv’s programme, Politics In the present day, aired on 3 April, the place she alleged that her life was at risk following the withdrawal of her safety element. Throughout the interview, she additionally accused Messrs Akpabio and Bello of being behind the alleged plot to assassinate her.
M.B. Abubakar, director of the Division of Public Prosecutions of the Federation (DPPF), who signed the cost sheet, stated Mrs Akpoti-Uduaghan knowingly made these allegations with the notice that they may harm the reputations of the people talked about.
The second case, marked CR/195/25, expands on the sooner fees by together with remarks she allegedly made throughout a homecoming occasion in her constituency on 1 April.
On the gathering, she reiterated claims that the Senate president and the previous governor have been plotting to assassinate her. She attributed the alleged plot to her refusal to succumb to political strain and a failed try to recall her from the Senate.
The second cost additionally retained the claims she made throughout her 3 April interview on Channels Tv
