Prior to the planned arraignment of the troubled legislator representing Kogi Central Senatorial District, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, former Education Minister Oby Ezekwesili has arrived at the Federal Capital Territory’s (FCT) High Court in Maitama.
Aisha Yesufu and other prominent rights activists accompanied the former Education Minister in the courtroom.
Senator Natasha is scheduled to enter her plea before trial Justice Chizoba Orji, according to the DAILY POST.
Around 10:27 a.m., the politician, her husband, and attorneys entered the court grounds, which had been fortified with armed security personnel.
The judge would start sitting by 11 a.m., the court clerk had previously told those who were waiting inside the courtroom.
The legislator is being prosecuted by the federal government for allegedly making a false accusation that she was the target of an assassination plot by former Kogi State Governor Yahaya Bello and Senate President Godswill Akpabio.
In the three-count charge designated CR/297/25, the Federal Government claimed that Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan, the only defendant, made the false and defamatory statements during her live television appearance as a guest.
It specifically accused the lawmaker, who is currently on a six-month suspension, of making “imputation, knowing or having reason to believe that such imputation will harm the reputation of a person.”
According to the charge, by making such false imputations that tarnished the image of others, Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan committed an offence under Section 391 of the Penal Code, Cap 89, Laws of the Federation, 1990.
It added that the alleged offence is punishable under Section 392 of the same law.
Giving particulars of the offence in Count One of the charge, the Federal Government told the court that the defendant committed the alleged crime on April 3, during a live broadcast on Channels Television’s Politics Today.
According to reports, the member said that several politicians who disagreed with her were planning to kill her.
Akpabio and Bello, who were mentioned as fictitious complainants, were among the people named as witnesses in the case.
Two police officers who looked into the case, Maya Iliya and Abdulhafiz Garba, a senator named Asuquo Ekpenyong, and a woman named Sandra Duru are also scheduled to testify in the case.
The May 16 allegation followed Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan’s letter to Prince Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, accusing police of being biased in their investigation of her petitions against the Senate President.
It will be recalled that the Federal High Court in Abuja had fixed June 27 to determine the legality or otherwise of the six-month suspension that was slammed on the defendant by the Senate.
Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan approached the court after she was summoned to appear before the disciplinary committee following a faceoff she had with the Senate President during plenary on February 20.
While protesting alleged arbitrary change of her seating position, she repeatedly raised a point of order to be allowed to speak, even though she had been overruled by the Senate President.
The Senate President submitted her case to the Ethics Committee because of her behavior.
In a February 28 television appearance, Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan said that her struggles in the Senate started when she turned down unwanted approaches from Senate President Akpabio.
She asked the court to declare any action taken by the Senate Committee while her claim was pending, including her suspension, as “null, void, and of no effect” in an ex parte application.
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