Akpabio, Yahaya Bello to testify as FG files criminal charges against Natasha

Natasha

The Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, and the immediate past Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello, alongside four others, have been listed as key witnesses in a criminal suit filed by the Federal Government against suspended Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan over alleged defamatory statements.

The suit, marked CR/297/25, was filed on May 16, 2025, at the Federal Capital Territory High Court.

Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan, representing Kogi Central, is the sole defendant in the case.

The Federal Government, through the Director of Public Prosecutions, Mohammed Abubakar, accused the senator of making criminal imputations during a live broadcast and a private phone conversation, which allegedly defamed Akpabio and Bello.

One of the central allegations involves statements Akpoti-Uduaghan made on Channels TV’s Politics Today programme on April 3, 2025, where she alleged that both Akpabio and Bello discussed plans to assassinate her.

“It was part of the meeting, the discussions that Akpabio had with Yahaya Bello that night—to eliminate me… he then emphasised that I should be killed in Kogi,” the charge quoted her as saying.

In another instance, dated March 27, 2025, the government claims the senator told a woman named Sandra Duru during a phone call that Akpabio was linked to the organ harvesting of the late Iniubong Umoren for his ailing wife.

The FG charged her under Sections 391 and 392 of the Penal Code, which deal with defamation and criminal harm to reputation.

Other witnesses listed in the suit include Senator Asuquo Ekpenyong, Sandra C. Duru; and two Investigating Police Officers, Maya Iliya and Abdulhafiz Garba.

The trial stems from escalating tensions since Akpoti-Uduaghan’s six-month suspension from the Senate on March 6, following a heated disagreement with Akpabio.