COURT GRANTS N50M BAIL TO SENATOR NATASHA AKPOTI-UDUAGHAN OVER DEFAMATION CHARGES
The Federal Capital Territory High Court in Maitama, Abuja, on Thursday granted bail to the suspended Senator representing Kogi Central, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, in the sum of ₦50 million with one surety. The surety must be a person of reasonable integrity, reside in Abuja, and own landed property within the Abuja Municipal Area Council.
Justice Chizoba Orji delivered the ruling after hearing arguments for and against the bail application.
Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan is facing a three-count criminal charge marked CR/297/25, filed by the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation. The charges stem from alleged defamatory statements made during a live appearance on Channels Television’s Politics Today on April 3, 2025.
In the charge, the Federal Government accuses the senator of making damaging claims against Senate President Godswill Akpabio and former Kogi State Governor Yahaya Bello, alleging they conspired to orchestrate her assassination, disguised as a mob attack.
Quoting her words during the broadcast, the prosecution stated:
“Let’s ask the Senate President, why in the first instance did he withdraw my security, if not to make me vulnerable to attacks? He then emphasised that I should be killed, but I should be killed in Kogi… Who is going to get justice for me?”
The charge also referenced an earlier telephone conversation on March 27, 2025, between Akpoti-Uduaghan and one Sandra C. Duru, in which the senator allegedly made a shocking claim linking Akpabio to the death of Iniubong Umoren, a young woman murdered in 2021.
“That girl that was killed, what’s her name… Imoren Iniubong, her organs were actually used for the wife, because the wife was really ill,” she reportedly said.
The prosecution contends that these remarks were knowingly false and harmful to the reputations of the complainants. Akpabio, Bello, and four others have been listed as prosecution witnesses.
The senator pleaded not guilty to all three counts during her arraignment.
Akpoti-Uduaghan’s legal team, led by Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Prof. Roland Otaru, had earlier filed a bail application dated May 27, urging the court to grant her liberty, citing her constitutional right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty.
Otaru emphasized that the charges were not capital offences and therefore bailable. “This is a case where your lordship has the discretion to grant bail, and nobody—not even the President—can query it,” he said.
Prosecution counsel David Kaswe opposed the bail, urging the court to remand the senator to a correctional facility on grounds that she poses a flight risk. He also informed the court of a pending counter-affidavit opposing the bail request.
Referencing the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, Otaru countered that the law guarantees the presumption of innocence and stressed that the charges do not justify detention.
The court, exercising its discretion, granted bail and adjourned the matter for further hearing.
Meanwhile, a similar case against the senator is pending before Justice Muhammed Umar of the Federal High Court, Abuja. Proceedings in that case were stalled due to a lack of service on the defendant, and the court declined the prosecution’s request for a bench warrant.
Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan remains at the center of a growing political and legal storm as her trial proceeds.
