{"id":4339,"date":"2025-05-22T18:55:53","date_gmt":"2025-05-22T18:55:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/?p=4339"},"modified":"2025-05-22T19:09:25","modified_gmt":"2025-05-22T19:09:25","slug":"fg-slams-senator-natasha-with-criminal-defamation-charges-against-akpabio-bello","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/2025\/05\/22\/fg-slams-senator-natasha-with-criminal-defamation-charges-against-akpabio-bello\/","title":{"rendered":"FG slams Senator Natasha with Criminal defamation charges against Akpabio, Bello"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The Federal Government has formally filed criminal charges against Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan for allegedly making damaging allegations against the Senate President, Senator Godswill Obot Akpabio, and former Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Adoza Bello.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_3768\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3768\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-3768\" src=\"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Screenshot_20250430-155946_1-300x238.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"238\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Screenshot_20250430-155946_1-300x238.jpg 300w, https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/Screenshot_20250430-155946_1.jpg 668w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-3768\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Senate President, Godswill Akpabio<\/p><\/div>\n<p>FG&#8217;s suit which was filed by Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi hinges on three courts criminal charges against Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan for allegedly making damaging allegations against the Senate President, Senator Godswill Obot Akpabio, and former Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Adoza Bello.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_2544\" style=\"width: 308px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2544\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-2544\" src=\"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Screenshot_20250306-223225_2-298x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"298\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Screenshot_20250306-223225_2-298x300.jpg 298w, https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Screenshot_20250306-223225_2-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Screenshot_20250306-223225_2-80x80.jpg 80w, https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Screenshot_20250306-223225_2.jpg 524w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 298px) 100vw, 298px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-2544\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Former Governor Yahaya Bello<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Source within the office of the Attorney General revealed that the suit was filed under Charge No. CR\/1277\/25 at the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, before Honourable Justice C. N. Oji, the three-count charge was brought by the Department of Public Prosecutions on behalf of the Honourable Attorney-General of the Federation.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement that was made available to newsmen in Abuja Thursday,&#8221;The government is accusing Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan of making imputations intended to harm reputations, contrary to Section 391 of the Penal Code Law and punishable under Section 392 of the same law.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The first count centers on a televised interview granted by Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan on Channels Television\u2019s political programme, \u201cPolitics Today\u201d, aired on April 3, 2025.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In the interview, the Senator accused the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, of plotting her assassination in collaboration with former Governor Yahaya Bello.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Responding to a question from anchor Seun Okinbaloye, Akpoti-Uduaghan stated: \u201cIt was part of the meeting, the discussions that Akpabio had with Yahaya Bello that night, ehm\u2026 to eliminate me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She further implied that the withdrawal of her official security details by the Senate upon her suspension was a deliberate plot to make her \u201cvulnerable to attacks,\u201d suggesting an orchestrated attempt on her life.<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutors argued that these public statements were made with knowledge or reason to believe they would damage Senator Akpabio\u2019s reputation.<\/p>\n<p>Continuing,&#8221;The second count mirrors the first, on the imputation against Yahaya Bello, former Governor of Kogi State.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan told the same television audience that a plan to assassinate her was not to be carried out in Abuja, but in Kogi State, under Bello\u2019s watch.<\/p>\n<p>In her words: \u201cA week and a few days later when [Akpabio] met with [Bello], he then emphasized that I should be killed\u2026 I delayed going home because I had to put some measures on ground.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;She claimed to have reported the threats to the Inspector General of Police and made efforts to inform security operatives.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The prosecution contends that these allegations, made on national television, not only tarnished the character of Yahaya Bello, but also presented a grave national security concern, especially given the implications of political violence.<\/p>\n<p>In a third charge, &#8220;the Federal Government alleges that on March 27, 2025, during a telephone conversation with one Sandra C. Duru, Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan made a horrifying claim implicating Senate President Akpabio in an alleged killing and organ harvesting.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>According to court documents, she stated:\u201cThere was this girl that was killed, what\u2019s her name, umm\u2026 Iniobong Umoren\u2026 her organs were actually used for [Akpabio\u2019s] wife, because the wife was really ill three years ago\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This claim, &#8220;referencing a real-life murder case that once shocked the nation, is now being legally framed as a malicious and unsubstantiated attack on Senator Akpabio\u2019s character, capable of inciting public outrage and diminishing public confidence in the leadership of the National Assembly.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The government maintains that Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan acted recklessly and with malicious intent, abusing her public platform to spread defamatory and inflammatory statements that have far-reaching consequences for national peace, security, and democratic integrity.<\/p>\n<p>Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan was not in court as she refused service from bailiffs. Justice Orji, however, ordered that efforts should not be spared in ensuring that she is served before the next adjourned date.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; The Federal Government has formally filed criminal charges against Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan for allegedly making damaging allegations against the Senate President, Senator Godswill Obot Akpabio, and former Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Adoza Bello. FG&#8217;s suit which was filed by Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi hinges on three courts [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2447,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1492,1873,2792,2793,2790,2789,275,2791],"class_list":["post-4339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-allegations","tag-allegedly","tag-bailiffs","tag-changes","tag-damaging","tag-making","tag-malicious","tag-unsubstantiated"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4339"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4339\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4342,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4339\/revisions\/4342"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}