By Abu Hassan
Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, a senator in Nigeria, has expressed her shock after learning through the media that the government had filed defamation charges against her. The charges come after Akpoti-Uduaghan accused Senate President Godswill Akpabio and former state governor Yahaya Bell of plotting to kill her, an allegation that both politicians have denied.
In a statement to the BBC, Akpoti-Uduaghan said she had not been served with the court papers and only learned of the charges through the news. A spokesperson for the senate president claimed that the senator had been served, but a special legal adviser in the senate president’s office later clarified that the charges were initiated after a police investigation and that Akpabio had no involvement in the decision to prosecute.
The attorney general referenced a live interview broadcast by Nigeria’s Channels TV last month, in which Akpoti-Uduaghan alleged that there were “discussions that Akpabio had with Yahaya Bello… to eliminate me.” The attorney general stated that this statement and others made in the broadcast could harm the reputations of Bello and Akpabio.
However, Akpoti-Uduaghan stands by her allegation and maintains that she went to the police with the accusation that Akpabio and Bello posed a threat to her life. She sees the charges as an attempt to intimidate her and make her “fall in line” after accusing Akpabio of sexual harassment in February.
Akpabio’s legal adviser has denied these allegations and called the claim that he is “using the authorities at his disposal” to unfairly target anyone “baseless, unsubstantiated, and again, defamatory.”
The charges come amid a row that has engrossed Nigeria and raised questions about gender equality in the socially conservative nation. Akpoti-Uduaghan is one of just four women out of 109 senators. After accusing Akpabio of sexual harassment, she was suspended from the Senate for six months without pay. The Senate’s ethics committee said the suspension was for her “unruly and disruptive” behavior while the Senate was debating her allegations. However, Akpoti-Uduaghan and her supporters have argued that the committee was targeting her because of the allegations she had made against the senate president.
No date has been set for Akpoti-Uduaghan to appear in court.
