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The Federal High Court who sat in Abuja on Monday rejected the request of the federal government for a bench warrant to arrest the senator deferred by Natasha Akpoti-Uuduaghan, who faced allegations of defamation of criminal names.
The decision arose after the Federal Prosecutor, David Kaswe, told the court that Akpoti-Oduaghan lawyers had just been served on accusations that morning in court. Nevertheless, the senator failed to appear for the indictment.
Chief judge, Judge Muhammmed Umar, rejected the request of an arrest, stating that the court could not hold a senator responsibility for non-appearance when he was previously not served or given formal notification from the trial.
Judge Umar decided that, “Because the previous senator was not served with accusations or notification of the hearing, it could not be imagined for him to appear in court.”
Kaswe argued that the senator should know the indictment because his legal representative had received a document on his name. However, the judge rejected the claim, saying that the service of legal advisors did not imply that the defendant himself knew the scheduled process.
After the verdict, the prosecution requested and was given permission for the accusation services that were replaced through the Akpoti-Uuduaghan advisor, Johnson Usman. The court then improved June 30 on his indictment.
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Criminal accusations, brought by the Director of Public Prosecution of the Federation, Mohammed Abubakar, on behalf of the Federal Government, accused Senator Akpoti-Uuduaghan made comments from slandering during direct television interviews.
The complaint mentioned that the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, and the former Governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, as a nominal complaint.
FG accused that Akpoti-Uduaghan accused the two people of planning to kill him and disguise him as a local attack or mass, a claim that he allegedly made on * television politics * today’s politics * which aired on April 3, 2025.
He was reported to have said during the broadcast: “Let’s ask the president of the senate, why in the first example he attracts my security, if it does not make me vulnerable to attacks? He then emphasized that I must be killed, but I must be killed at Kogi. What is important for me is to stay alive, because the dead do not tell stories. Who will get justice for me?”
The accusation further claimed that he directly connected the former Governor of Yahaya Bello with a plan to kill him, allegedly stated: “It was part of the meeting, the discussion conducted by Akpabio with Yahaya Bello that night, to eliminate me. When he met him, he then stressed that I had to be killed, but I had to be killed in Kogi.”
The federal government states that the senator makes this statement with knowledge – or at least a reasonable belief – that they will damage the reputation of the person mentioned.
The lawsuit also referred to separate accusations committed during the telephone call between Akpoti-Uuduaghan and Sandra C. Duru on March 27, 2025. In the conversation, he allegedly made a destructive claim about the Akpabio Senate President in connection with the death of a young woman.
According to the accusation, he said:
“The girl who was killed, what her name was, Umm Imoren was this, her organs were actually used for his wife, because his wife was really sick … when they killed the girl, and her organs were used for wives.”
The government argues that the senator “knows or should know” that such a statement will hurt the reputation of the president of the senate.
Senate President Godswill Akpabio, former Governor of Yahaya Bello, and four others have been registered as witnesses to the prosecutor for the upcoming trial.
