The case alleges that defamatory statements were made by Akpabio and published on Facebook by his aide.
By Deborah Hassan
365Daily – Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan has sued Senate President Godswill Akpabio for alleged defamation, seeking N100.3 billion in damages.
The lawsuit follows a dispute over Akpoti-Uduaghan’s Senate seat, which was reassigned after opposition members switched to the majority wing. She resisted the change, leading to a confrontation with Akpabio.
The suit, filed at the Federal Capital Territory High Court on February 25, 2025, lists the Senate President, the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and the Senior Legislative Aide to the Senate President, Mfon Patrick, as the second and third defendants.
Marked as CV/737/25, the case alleges that defamatory statements were made by Akpabio and published on Facebook by his aide.
According to Akpoti-Uduaghan’s lawyer, Victor Giwa, the post titled “Is the Local Content Committee of the Senate Natasha’s Birthright?” contained a statement implying that the senator 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 damaging to Akpoti-Uduaghan’s dignity in the eyes of her colleagues and the public.
“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,” Giwa stated.
Akpoti-Uduaghan is also seeking an order preventing the defendants from making further defamatory statements against her.
“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,” she stated.
Additionally, she is demanding N100 billion in general damages and N300 million for 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.