Senate backs Akpabio as Natasha files N100.3bn defamation suit

The Senate, on Tuesday, on Tuesday, threw its weight behind the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, as the senator representing Kogi Central Senatorial District, Mrs Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, filed a N100.3bn defamation lawsuit against Akpabio.

The suit was a fallout of the clash between Akpabio and the female Kogi lawmaker last week over the relocation of her seat.

In her suit marked CV/737/25, Akpoti-Uduaghan alleged defamation and demanded N100.3bn in damages.

But in an interview with The PUNCH, the Senate spokesman, Senator Adaramodu, said Akpoti-Uduaghan would end up nowhere because “the parliament enjoys absolute privilege.”

“We are not aware of any suit for now but let me state here that the parliament enjoys absolute privilege in the conduct of its affairs and what it does in proper legislative setting is not actionable. This is all we can say for now,” Adaramodu said.

Akpoti-Uduaghan and Akpabio were engaged in a heated verbal exchange during plenary last week when the Kogi lawmaker protested the relocation of her seat.

In the heat of the argument, the Senate President called on the Senate security to walk the female senator out of the chambers, but fellow lawmakers’ intervention saved the situation from degenerating out of hand.

In an interview on Channels Television on February 21, the Senate spokesperson, Yemi Adaramodu, berated Akpoti-Uduaghan for confronting the Senate President, telling the first-time lawmaker that the Senate is not for theatrics.

“What we are saying is that the National Assembly is not for content creation in entertainment. The National Assembly is for serious business,” the Senate spokesman said.

However, in a suit, marked CV/737/25, filed before the Federal Capital Territory High Court on 25 February 2025, the Kogi lawmaker accused the Senate President of defamation.

Others joined as defendants in the suit are the Federal Republic of Nigeria; and the Senior Legislative Aide to the Senate President, Mfon Patrick.

Akpoti-Uduaghan, through her lawyer, Victor Giwa, alleged that defamatory statements were made by the Senate President and published by his aide on Facebook.

According to the lawyer, the post, titled “Is the Local Content Committee of the Senate Natasha’s Birthright?” included a statement suggesting that Akpoti-Uduaghan believed being a lawmaker was only about “pancaking her face and wearing transparent outfits to the chambers.”

Giwa argued that the statement was defamatory, provocative, and disparaging, lowering his client’s dignity in the eyes of her colleagues and the public.

The Kogi lawmaker is, therefore, seeking, among others, “a declaration that the words, ‘It is bottled anger by the Kogi lawmaker, who knows nothing about legislative rules. She thinks being a lawmaker is all about pancaking her face and wearing transparent outfits to the chambers,’ used and written by the third defendant at the prompting of the first and second defendants, is defamatory and intended to cause public opprobrium and disaffection toward the claimant.”

She also urged the court to restrain the defendants and their associates from making further defamatory statements against her on any platform.

She also prayed for “an order of perpetual injunction restraining the defendants, whether acting by themselves or through their agents, privies, assigns, or associates, from further publishing or causing to be published the said defamatory words or any similar publications about the claimant on social media or in any other manner capable of defaming her.”

Furthermore, Akpoti-Uduaghan asked the court to order the defendants to pay her N100bn in general damages and N300m as litigation costs.

“An order for the payment of the sum of N100,000,000,000 as general damages. An order for the payment of the sum of N300,000,000 as the cost of action,” she prayed.

The court has yet to fix any date for hearing.