Senator Natasha Sues Akpabio for Defamation, Demands N100bn
Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan has filed a lawsuit against the President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio, over alleged defamatory statements.
Akpoti-Uduaghan raised concerns after her Senate seat was reassigned following a reshuffle triggered by opposition members switching to the majority wing. She resisted the relocation, leading to a confrontation with the Senate President.
In a suit filed before the Federal Capital Territory High Court on February 25, 2025, the Senate President, the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and the Senior Legislative Aide to the Senate President, Mfon Patrick, were listed as the first, second, and third defendants.
The suit, marked CV/737/25, was filed by Akpoti-Uduaghan’s lawyer, Victor Giwa, who alleged that defamatory statements were made by the Senate President and published by his aide on Facebook.
According to him, the post, titled “Is the Local Content Committee of the Senate Natasha’s Birthright?” included a statement suggesting that Akpoti-Uduaghan believed being a lawmaker was only about “pancaking her face and wearing transparent outfits to the chambers.”
Giwa argued that the statement was defamatory, provocative, and disparaging, lowering his client’s dignity in the eyes of her colleagues and the public.
He stated, “A declaration that the words, ‘It is bottled anger by the Kogi lawmaker, who knows nothing about legislative rules. She thinks being a lawmaker is all about pancaking her face and wearing transparent outfits to the chambers,’ used and written by the third defendant at the prompting of the first and second defendants, is defamatory and intended to cause public opprobrium and disaffection toward the claimant.”
Akpoti-Uduaghan also urged the court to restrain the defendants and their associates from making further defamatory statements against her on any platform.
“An order of perpetual injunction restraining the defendants, whether acting by themselves or through their agents, privies, assigns, or associates, from further publishing or causing to be published the said defamatory words or any similar publications about the claimant on social media or in any other manner capable of defaming her,” she stated.
Furthermore, she asked the court to order the defendants to pay her N100 billion in general damages and N300 million as litigation costs.
“An order for the payment of the sum of N100,000,000,000 as general damages. An order for the payment of the sum of N300,000,000 as the cost of action,” she prayed.
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